More than six months after a shocking gang-rape which drove a teenage girl to suicide hit headlines, the boys she claimed raped her have still not been questioned.
Linda Trevan, the mother of Melbourne schoolgirl Cassidy Trevan, who committed suicide in 2015, asked officers re-open her daughter’s rape case and to question the boys she claimed raped her.
But now, seven months after her initial plea, Ms Trevan’s wishes have fallen on deaf ears. No child was ever questioned, and no conviction was ever made, Nine News reported.
Linda Trevan (left), the mother of schoolgirl Cassidy (right) who killed herself in 2015, has asked police to reopen the case into her daughter’s alleged rapists
Cassidy was gang-raped aged 13 while at school in Melbourne as part of a lengthy campaign of bullying that saw her suffer from PTSD, separation anxiety, and insomnia
Victoria’s Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said Ms Trevan’s situation was ‘horrendous’.
‘It’s pretty awful to sit back and think there are three males who are quite possibly rapists,’ he said.
‘And a couple of teenage girls – who are not five-year-olds who don’t know right from wrong – who are alleged to have created the circumstances in which this poor girl has been raped multiple times and if they get to walk away from it scot-free, there is very little justice.’
Speaking to Nine News earlier this year, Ms Trevan said: ‘All I want is for them to be questioned. For them to not think they got away completely scot-free, no consequences.
‘I want them to feel the fear that Cass felt.’
Mr Davies said there was nothing that would have stopped police from interviewing the children Ms Trevan named to them in full as the attackers.
‘If the police believe the allegations that are made and they have been given the names or addresses of the noted suspects, they can go and interview them, or they can go and speak to them,’ he said.
Cassidy contacted police after the attack, but she could not bring herself to give officers a statement, so her alleged attackers were never questioned
‘They can speak to whoever they wish over any investigation that they are conducting.’
Cassidy was badly bullied by two girls at a Melbourne high school in 2013, missing out on the fourth term of Year 7 because she could no longer face school.
When she returned for two days per week, the girls seemed to be keen to make amends, asking her to be their friend and inviting her to a festival.
But instead of taking her to the music event, the girls took her to a nearby house where Cassidy was raped by two boys who took turns while the other girls sat in an adjacent room.
The boys timed each other while attacking her, Ms Trevan said at the time, while another one stood guard at the door.
The attack left Cassidy suffering nightmares, insomnia, separation anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD.
Ms Trevan said the family met with Victoria Police’s Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team more than 20 times, but Cassidy could not bring herself to give them a statement, fearing that reliving the experience would push her over the edge.
Plagued by mental health issues, Cassidy eventually took her own life in 2015.
Because no official crime report was lodged before she died, the alleged attackers were never questioned over the incident.
Ms Trevan (left and right, with Cassidy) says she has passed new evidence to police and believes the alleged attackers may still confess if confronted
But Ms Trevan believes the boys, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, may still confess if confronted.
She says new evidence, including a text conversation with one of the female bullies in which she acknowledges the rape, could help the case.
Ms Trevan said one of the boys also confessed the attack to a male friend of Cassidy’s when confronted about it, trying to excuse his actions by saying he was drunk and stoned at the time.
She has passed the evidence to Victoria Police. A police spokesman refused to say whether any of the suspects had been questioned.
In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, the spokesman said: ‘Detectives work hard to build rapport and trust with victims of sexual offences and to ensure their welfare is looked after as a priority.
‘Breaching a victim’s trust and proceeding with some investigative leads can, in some cases, be a severe detriment to the investigation and the victim’s wellbeing.
‘In this case, SOCIT detectives are confident that they followed all appropriate investigative leads.’