Christian Porter’s rape accuser wrote in her statement detailing her claims that she gained a better understanding of her memories by using a discredited form of therapy.
The Attorney-General, is on mental health leave this week and has strongly denied raping the woman when they were both teenagers in 1988.
The woman said while she had ‘always remembered’ about the alleged events, she ‘only really understood’ her memories after her psychologist introduced her to recovered memory theory.
The details emerged as Mr Porter was defended by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, who slammed what he called a ‘salacious’ inquisition and called for a confidential inquiry.
Christian Porter fronted the media on Wednesday and repeatedly denied raping a 16-year-old girl after a debating competition in Sydney in 1988
Mr Porter’s accuser said in her statement she was referred to the book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and body in the Healing of Trauma, by American psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, Crikey reported.
‘I had not previously heard of it, nor had I read it,’ she said in the statement.
‘Bessel van der Kolk explains that for survivors of torture and trauma our bodies will store traumatic events and only allow them to resurface when our minds are able to re-examine them, usually several decades later.’
The alleged victim said she had a ‘better understanding’ of her memories after reading a book on the therapy of repressed memory theory written by Bessel van der Kolk
This therapy, which is used to target horrific memories individuals may have forgotten because they were so traumatic, has been discredited in recent years.
Recovered memory therapy has been criticised by some psychologists who labelled it ‘the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.’
But friends of the alleged victim have claimed she told them about the allegations well before she read Dr van der Kolk’s book.
‘This is wrong. Our friend sought professional help for her trauma years before 2019,’ friend Jo Dyer, the director of the Adelaide Writers Festival told news.com.au.
‘Her memories never had to be ‘recovered’ as she lived with them constantly. An inquiry would establish this beyond a shred of doubt.’
Another friend who spoke to the woman after she met police in February last year said she had a clear mind at the time.
‘She was lucid, calm, rational, attentive, forensic,’ Rick Kalowski told The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘In no way was she delusional or away with the fairies.’
Barnaby Joyce has fired back at what he calls the ‘salacious’ inquisition given to Attorney-General Christian Porter after he publicly denied rape allegations
In a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday, Mr Joyce called for a ‘confidential’ inquiry into Mr Porter and his accuser, and not one in front of the ‘media’s camera’.
Referencing allegations he himself had faced, Mr Joyce said he didn’t want Mr Porter ‘sitting at the back of the chamber under the exit sign where my colleagues have kindly placed me’.
‘I have had allegations placed against me and no one ran to my defence,’ he wrote.
‘Christian Porter may not want an independent inquiry but he has got one by default. A demeaning, cathartic inquisition by the press and Opposition.
‘It is achieving little beyond ratings as salacious dissonance and certainly not offering any solace to any party involved.
‘The alternative should be an inquiry, in camera, the confidential one, not the media’s camera.’
Mr Joyce said he feared the sexual assault allegations would ‘hang like fog’ over Mr Porter’s ‘quite remarkable’ career if the public inquisition did not stop.
In 2018 a woman from Western Australia made a sexual harassment complaint against Mr Joyce.
He stepped down from his role as Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals Leader in February of that year.
‘Christian knows, many in the Opposition and some on his own side don’t want the truth unless it comes with his head on a plate,’ Mr Joyce continued.
‘They just want his scalp.’
Police said there was ‘insufficient admissible evidence’ to continue with the investigation into the rape allegations.
The alleged victim took her own life in June, 2020, after reporting the incident to police a year earlier.