One in five children will have experienced sexual abuse by the time they reach adulthood. Zibby Yates was one of them and carried the secret for almost two decades. Now she is spearheading a new campaign aimed at building on Guernsey’s determination to tackle such abuse – and give victims a voice. Nicci Martel reports.

IN THE last five years alone, Guernsey has seen huge progress in the way child sex abuse is tackled.

The introduction of the Children Law in 2008, the subsequent creation of the Island Child Protection Committee and the current drafting of a new Sexual Offences Law are all reasons to be hopeful.

But an estimated one in five children experiences sexual abuse – a third of those will keep this a secret until adulthood – and no society can ever rest on its laurels in the belief that it has done enough.

That is why the Guernsey Press is today launching Voice for Victims, which aims not only to raise awareness of the issues surrounding child sex abuse but to campaign for the island’s policy-makers to make prevention and justice for victims an absolute priority.

‘Sexual abuse of a child is a violation of that child’s human rights in the most cruel and degrading manner. It can devastate the lives of victims. Raising awareness of this kind of abuse is absolutely vital in preventing it from happening in the first place,’ said sexual abuse survivor Zibby Yates, who is spearheading the campaign.

‘But while prevention is essential, more must also be done to not only give victims the confidence to report these crimes, but to give them a voice throughout the judicial process and the support they need in coming to terms with the abuse.

‘Sentencing of paedophiles, as it stands, does not reflect the damage inflicted on victims, who can often feel that justice has not been done,’ she said.

In the last 12 months alone this newspaper’s website, thisisguernsey.com, has been inundated with posts from readers who are both outraged and/or confused by the sentencing handed down by the courts in a number of high-profile cases involving sexual offences against children.

In one example, when the Guernsey Court of Appeal controversially reduced a 15-month sentence imposed on former hotelier Mark Gunter in March last year to just three months, islanders were quick to make their opinions known. Gunter had admitted seven charges of possessing a total of 505 indecent images of children.

‘Unacceptable’, ‘sad’, and ‘there needs to be consistency’, were some of the comments left by readers and this is why Voice for Victims urges Guernsey lawmakers to make transparency, consistency and justice the cornerstone of the new Sexual Offences Law.

In October, members of the European Parliament voted in favour of a crackdown on child sex crime – the directive even included a recommendation that viewers of child pornography receive a minimum of one year in prison.

Voice for Victims hopes that Guernsey will take a similarly tough stance, while making prevention and support for victims an absolute priority.

• More about Voice For Victims