ACA
Peta Butler was just 16-years-old when her mother, Therese Butler, organised a horrific betrayal on her behalf. The young teen was raped by a ‘balding, fat man, three times her age’ – all the while her mother, who organised the whole thing, sat outside smoking.
It took a decade for Peta to bravely come forward, and has since shared her story with A Current Affair.
While on a ‘girl’s trip’ in Towoomba, Peta’s mother supplied her with alcohol and sent her into a cheap hotel room where the devastating event would unfold.
Peta told Courier Mail, ‘Not long after that, he entered the room. He didn’t say anything. He just literally walked up to me and took off his clothes and took off my pants. I was frozen. I couldn’t do anything. I just couldn’t move.’
Sharing her tragic story with Tracy Grimshaw on Monday night, Peta asked: ‘I think to myself ‘how could a mum do what she did’?’
‘How could a mum sit outside knowing that their daughter is being raped by her potential boyfriend?’
During the segment, viewers listened to the horrifying audio of the telephone confession which helped Peta bring her mother to justice.
‘I was hoping she was going to come in and stop it,’ she tearfully said. ‘She knew what was happening.’
Asked why she took so long to finally make her mother admit to the horrific crime, Peta replied: ‘I wasn’t strong enough for it at that time. I didn’t think people would believe me.’
It wasn’t until she had daughters of her own that she broke her silence.
Therese Butler was sentenced to four years in prison, suspended after 12 months, after pleading guilty to procuring a child for carnal knowledge.
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
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