Woman gets justice for what her father did to her as a 'vulnerable' child | A Current Affair

the woman you're about to meet is a survivor for years she suffered abuse at the hands of the very person who was supposed to keep her safe her dad this story is confronting but it's one jessica wants to share after she fought so hard to bring him down [Music] i think the hardest part is the fact that i was so innocent and i was so vulnerable being a child wasn't easy for jessica gardner i don't know anything worse that anybody could do to a child she lived in fear of her father especially when they were alone he was always just abusing us swearing at us pushing us from my earliest memories were you scared of him i was petrified i was terrified of the man [Music] a father should be his daughter's greatest protector who will do anything to keep her out of harm's way but jessica's dad did the total opposite peter gardner sexually abused his little girl for almost her entire childhood and all at the one place she was supposed to feel safe the family home i had no idea i just thought this was just what happened between parents and children i just thought that this was normal what jess would do to rescue her five-year-old self a kindy kid who should have been able to trust her dad instead he betrayed her in the most depraved way [Music] my brother used to do karate lessons he used to do them once a week and mum would take him and i remember i was so scared for her to leave because i knew what was coming [Music] when you would put your head down on the pillow at night as a little girl would you think about it yeah i was scared because that's when he used to come in when everyone had been to bed so the rest of the family's sleeping in the house yeah and he'd sneak into your room yeah and i had to be quiet because otherwise mum was gonna find out and she would have she would have been so disappointed in me and she would have been angry at me and she wouldn't love me anymore what peter did to his daughter on a weekly basis is too disturbing to detail but it went on for years from when she was five until she was 11 learning about sex education at school and it was just like an epiphany moment that i'd realized what was going on and that that's not something that's supposed to happen to children let alone from their own father and i just had to sit there in pure shock putting the pieces together of what had happened over the past many years between me and peter why do you call him peter because he doesn't he doesn't deserve to be called a father he's never been a father he's been a predator he's a pedophile the next time peter went to prey on his daughter would be the last i just remember i looked him dead in the eyes and i said no and we were both just looking each other in the eyes and he knew that i figured out what was going on and it never happened again after that it would take more than a year for jess to find the courage to tell her mum i'll never forget the look on her face it was just pure shock but peter denied everything and devastatingly for jess at first her mum believed him he said that never happened it never happened he'd never do that to me he'd never touch me in that kind of way we were just mucking around and i can remember it wrong and i had made up this story like it's an adult against a child who do you believe jess knew the time would come to prove her parents wrong and that moment finally came ten years later when she was 22 and least expecting it one of my girlfriends and her partner had a baby and i was holding her and she was so sweet it's so cute so innocent and i just remember i looked at her and i was like how how could somebody do that to somebody to a child to a baby and um and i just knew at that point that i had to do something before jess could go to the police they called her after receiving an anonymous tip off it would be the first time jess met senior constable alison fitzpatrick alison jess is a real inspiration isn't she she is she's an incredibly strong woman unaware police were on to him peter planned to take off with his dirty secret to the other side of the world he was putting in a visa to move to thailand permanently and i was like you can buy children over there those children don't have any rights and there's no way in hell i'm going to sit here and let him do that to another child but jess's word wasn't going to be enough she needed evidence of her father confessing to his heinous crimes and she got it this is it i want to know what was going through your head when you did those things to me i've thought about it darling i thought about it so much as to what would make me want to do that dude what i want you to tell me exactly what you said performed with you like you were the innocent one in it i was supposed to be the one that knew better you're supposed to be my dad i don't know i didn't even think of the consequences and i know that it all happened i'm not going to deny that i can't i can't do that i just want an explanation and maybe an apology an apology i cannot apologize enough for it i'm so sorry i don't know why i did it [Music] march 10 last year time was up for peter gardner the day he gets arrested and you know that he's in custody how did you feel broken but relieved at the same time like i had literally just sent my father to prison but then it was such a relief to know that he couldn't go anywhere and he couldn't get away with it [Music] gardner pleaded guilty to eight child abuse charges including sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10 and maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child arriving at goulburn courthouse jess couldn't have been more ready for peter to pay what do you want to happen to your father today i need justice for everything that he put me through jesse's staunch knowing her father is staring down life in prison [Music] via video link from a jail cell gardner showed no emotion as his daughter poured her heart out to the court detailing the damage he has done she told him no child should want to die because of what their parent has done to them in handing down his sentence the judge noted jessa's father had admitted to his crimes in not one but two recorded conversations he was sentenced to at least six years and three months in jail with time already served peter gardner could walk free in just over five years he abused me for more years and he was getting fantastic that's not fair it's a breach of the greatest trust that he's ever there that child's innocence can never be brought back again but unfortunately it happens it happens regularly detective superintendent jane doherty leads the new south wales child abuse and sex crimes squad we would love to see a lot of them put away for a lot longer than they are but unfortunately that's out of our hands it must be frustrating when you have such a strong brief i mean briefs don't come stronger than jess's they are but we can't get consumed by just the result at the end of the day the important thing for victim survivors is that they've been believed it's been reinforced by the court that they're correct that their version was correct and that offender has been held to task whether they get six years whether they at 60 years we will now have that offender identified to police so that we can limit their contact with children in the future jess is one tough chick she holds her own as an apprentice carpenter and hopes to one day put her trade to good use build some kind of safe environment and housing for women and young families and children in these situations to be able to get out what a special place that will be huh yeah built with your own hands yeah hopefully she knows there are many victims out there just like her and jess wants them all to see having the guts to speak up isn't easy but it's worth it you get to have the last say when it comes to your father what are those words [Music] um i won you don't start a battle when you can't win a war and there's no way in hell he's going to win it he never really stood a chance against me he built me to be able to take on the devil and when and when jessica wasn't happy with her father's sentence but she doesn't want to go through an appeal

Channel: A Current Affair

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Keywords: a current affair, a current affair scam, a current affair reporter, a current affair australia, channel 9 news, 9 news australia, australia news, world news, australian news, channel 9

Id: 0-W1t7avaXI

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 16 2022