I remember when I was returning to work after my daughter was born and the emotional roller coaster I went through in finding an early childhood centre. I had so much mum-guilt in needing to put her into childcare that I cried for days.
At that stage, I was not even a police officer, I was just...
I grew up in a blended family. My parents separated when I was a young child and I grew up with step-parents.
With that being said, there was a lot less blended families when I was growing up than there is now. Blended families are a much more normal family structure than when I was younger and...
A child that does NOT feel safe will not disclose abuse.
At times I think we forget this FACT in our goals to protect and help kids.
As a specialist child interviewer, I was very aware that the time and process prior to the child's interview was equally, if not more important than the...
TRIGGER WARNING - THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS THE DISCUSSION OF CHILD ABUSE MATERIAL!
I had a young person contact me yesterday asking for HELP.
The young person had been shared a link to a website in which they were pressured to open and look at on insistence from 'friends'.
The...
After my Sunrise interview this morning which just touched on some of the basics of child safety, I wanted to share with parents, more in-depth advice on how to help keep your kids safe but NOT scared when talking about things like Stranger Danger.
In my experience, compared to reported...
I don't think parents and caregivers understand just how vitally important and necessary, consent education is for our children and teenagers and that unless you have been taught consent, it's not something everyone intrinsically understands or respects properly.
In my experience, many...
Whilst interviewing children about their child sexual abuse, I noticed recurring patterns and behaviours being shared by the children I was talking to both in regards to in-person abuse and online exploitation. They would describe how their abusers would similarly groom them, keep them complicit...
Kids talking to strangers online is a seriously scary thought for some parents and not much of a consideration for others.
As a parent, we often don't understand or realise the risks in a child or teens need to engage and communicate with someone not known to them in real life. Even...
If you love true crime and hearing stories about policing than you need to check out the 'I catch killers' podcast.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed for the podcast with ex-NSW Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin last week.
During the interview, I got to share my experiences in...
Grooming is when a person engages in predatory conduct and behaviours to prepare a child or young person for sexual activity at a later time by gaining their trust and/or compliance.
Grooming encompasses all activity/behaviours from communicating and befriending of a child, the...
‘If parents knew what I knew, they would do things differently with their kids’.
That is the thought that runs excessively through my mind after 10 years as a specialist child interviewer and a detective, interviewing victims and investigating cases of child sexual abuse.
After...
