🎙️ Episode 56: Predator on the Pulpit – Kathleen Walsh (Part 1)

🎙️ Episode 56: Predator on the Pulpit – Kathleen Walsh (Part 1)

This is not an easy listen…
 But it’s an important one.

Recorded live at C-Bar on The Strand, overlooking Magnetic Island, this episode pulls back the curtain on a story that should never have happened — and a truth that should never have been hidden.

In Part 1, Buzz sits down with Kathleen Walsh — a survivor, advocate, and voice for those who were silenced.

What unfolds is raw, confronting, and deeply personal.

This is a story about:

•  Trust that was broken 
•  A system that failed to protect 
•  The silence that followed 
•  And the courage it takes to finally speak 

This episode doesn’t chase comfort — it chases truth.

⚠️ Trigger Warning:
This episode discusses abuse, trauma, and institutional failure. Please take care while listening.

💬 If this episode affects you:
You are not alone.
Reach out to someone you trust or contact support services:

•  Lifeline: 13 11 14 
•  1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 
•  Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 
•  Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 
•  In immediate danger: Call 000 

🔥 This is just the beginning…

In Part 2, we go deeper — into accountability, systems, and what must change.

Because silence is where this survives…
 And we’re not doing silence anymore.

🎧 Listen now on all major platforms
📢 Follow, share, and help amplify voices that matter

🙏 Proudly supported by:
🍻 C-Bar – Eat. Drink. Celebrate.
🟢 Lactigo – Supporting recovery. Supporting performance.

Who Is Your Hero
Real stories. Real people. Real impact.

#WhoIsYourHero #PredatorOnThePulpit #KathleenWalsh #SpeakUp #BreakTheSilence #MensMentalHealth #RealTalk #Justice #Townsville #Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 1:13

We're sitting here today to see that on the screen looking here out of the most beautiful views in North Queensland. Magnetic Island. Just sit near the water calm, the winds buying a bit, they were walking past, life going on like everything. That's the thing about life, it's not normal. On the surface, everything looks calm and peaceful, safe, protected. But underneath, behind closed doors, behind institutions, behind titles, there's stories that don't get told. Stories that get buried, stories that get ignored, stories and that people are too uncomfortable to fight. So they turn away. But not today. Today we're gonna lean in. Because today's episode isn't about comfort, it's about truth. And truth doesn't always come easy. It takes carry real terries. Not the kind to see on social media hide, hide mind test and dogs. Not the kind that people talk about. But the kind that shows up quietly, carries tiny, carries white, and still finds a way to stand up and speak. If she's sitting right next to me right now, is a woman who's lived through something that should never have happened. A woman who plays trust in a system that was meant to protect her, tied her, do the right thing by her, and somewhere along the way, that trust was broken. Not just by a person, but by something much bigger. And what happens next is what so many people never stayed. The silence, the death, the fight to be believed, the light of tearing stuff as the world doesn't want to hear. But today the silence ends. Because this isn't just a conversation, this is now a cannibality. This is that stunning a lot, and the prices that have stayed that for far too long. And before we even begin, I wanna say this clearly. It takes an incredible amount of hours to sit there publicly and tell a story about this. So Kathleen, I want to acknowledge you for that, I respect you for that, and I thank you for trusting this platform to share it. Because if this conversation helps even one person feel left alone, or gives someone the strength to speak out and stay another day, then it matters. It really matters. Kathleen Walsh, welcome to Who Are Your Hero.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Thank you very much, Matt. I'm very privileged to have been invited on. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 3:45

No, it's uh it's not a privilege, it's it's what uh we've been talking about in the green room as I speak, it's getting to know each other, I suppose. And for me to do a story like this is not it's a privilege for me. You know, I'm humbled, as I said to Ren, to you guys to trust me to tell your story. Thank you. And as you know, realize with me now, I don't like keeping things quiet. Um apparently you don't either.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Not at all.

SPEAKER_07 4:10

Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Silence is not golden.

SPEAKER_07 4:13

But I need you to say we'll we'll chat for a little bit. We'll probably do 35 minutes to start with, and then we'll have it through there because I understand. I'm just here to listen to your story to call the people, but it can be very compelling for you and any of our listeners that are struggling at this moment. Please reach out to the government bodies that are there for us, like Lifeline and probably your foundation shoot practical. Absolutely. The phone's always open. I'm not the person you're phone got. You can ring me up, but I'll send you to someone else. But uh just be careful listening. It does contain and I think will contain a bit of uh content that might trigger some people. So I'm gonna start from the beginning here, and I've heard a little bit about it this morning anyway. So who is Kathleen Walsh away from all of this?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Kathleen Walsh away from all of this. I've actually from the moment you asked me to to come on here and speak, I've been thinking a lot about, you know, what I was gonna talk about. And there is distinctly probably several different sections of Kathleen Walsh. There's Kathleen Walsh pre-Neble Joseph Green. Um and then there's Kathleen Walsh during Nebel Joseph Green, then there's Kathleen Walsh post-Nebble Joseph Green, and then there's Kathleen Walsh at different stages of my life, adult life. And then there's Kathleen Walsh after she went public, or when she went to police, and then when she went public. So yeah, there's many, many areas that with uh crane.

SPEAKER_07 5:47

What was a child like when when did when did at first happen?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

When I went to police, I was asked, I was told I could start wherever I wanted to start, and I started it um uh at a at a at one of the events that you know stood out in my mind that morning as I sat with the detective that that wasn't the start. Neville Joseph Cream was a Catholic priest and he came to Mount Isa in 1973, and uh my first holy commun communion was probably the first uh time I had seen him, and it's actually the first time that he offended against me at the communion. He followed me into the uh toilets and at the uh school well I was eight. Grade three, we made our first holiday communion and that's my first encounter with him and the truth being known uh he was sent to Mount Israel, it was already known about him. So, you know, rather than deal with it, what they did was just geography. They just moved him from parish to parish.

SPEAKER_07 7:14

So you've got you've got you've got um well, would you call it Evans that he he'd offended before you?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 7:22

And uh it was a bit like, and I can summarise it with it, I was a Ballarat boy, and and um I know a few lads, I won't name them. But um it a bit like the George Pell moving, the Ridstall type things I'm fully aware.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

100%.

SPEAKER_07 7:37

Who was the archbishop up this way moving him on this way did the bishop was uh Leonard Falker.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Um and and you know, I know that parents went to him uh as well. Um I've got a statement where a parent went to him and um he his commentary was or his comment to the parent was little girls have very vivid imaginations. Well, I'm sorry, little girls at eight years of age are are thinking about playing dolls and and dancing and and singing and then And the oblivious to all that other shit, oh yeah, not thinking about being sexually abused.

SPEAKER_07 8:20

So this this has happened, and I don't say that lightly. Um and I look, I'll just tell people, you know me, this podcast is pretty raw and real. I don't have the education. So some of the some of the things I do say, um, there's no no offense to be taken in them, but it's uh how my brain works and keeping it real as possible. But um, you know, what did home like this has happened at the age of eight, so what did it feel like home and growing up after this?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Like well, pre pre-crean home was you know, home was a good home. I you know, there's no way my parents weren't good people. They were good, very good people. And uh you know, I was your typical little girl. I was uh my parents were Irish, very, very strong um Irish culture. So I was in Irish dancing from when I was about four, I think. Um and so life was very normal. Uh, you know, I would go down to the uh little shop down thing and get a paper bag with 20 cents of lollies, and you know, and and you'd get a full bag, and we're just a normal kid, you know, go across the park and and ride your bike. And then Cream came along, and it's it's almost like a a distinct line in the sand where there was life before I went to that first hold of communion, and then I came away from that first hold of communion a very confused and very scared little girl. Really didn't know you know, my my family were very, you know, you didn't leave the bathroom unless you were fully dressed, and you know, it was a very sheltered life.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Um so coming home coming home from school after, you know, what was going on very confusing, very scary. Um, and it just seemed that nobody was doing anything about him. So you just felt very alone.

SPEAKER_07 10:24

So, you know, at at the age of eight and this and ten and twelve and all that, you know, with young girls you know, got to have beliefs in type things. And look, I remember back to those days and my parents were very Catholic. Yeah. You know, I got baptized, I did my first communion, uh I smelled a rat on the system back then, I think, because I got got out of it, you know, with these weirdos in dresses. Was was my but mum and dad pushed me to the age of twelve and then they gave me a decision whether I wanted to go or not. But what did you believe in as a young girl? Like like try what I'm trying to say is that as a young fellow, I even earlier had all these beliefs of what I was gonna be. What you know, do you didn't get that opportunity, you know?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

I think we we we it was very much brainwashed. We were brainwashed in the Catholic faith. Um and and to to a l uh large degree, uh, you know, my father didn't go to mass, but my mother was very, very Catholic. And as were most of the parents. And that's what protected the clergy and the church. And what did I believe in? I I don't know. I just remember you know, I would sit in mass and what have you, and and just felt very lonely and just didn't want to be there. Didn't believe in it, but didn't know what to do about it. To be back then, also, like I'm 61, you know, at a week and a half.

SPEAKER_07 11:59

Just a quick one from me, a buzz. Massive shout out to the legends of the sea bar down on the strand. Now, if you haven't been there, what are you doing? Cold beers, cracking food, and a view over Magnetic Island that'll make you forget every problem you walked in with. But more than that, these guys actually give us stuff about townsfolk. They back the locals, support the community, and create a place where people can come together. And that really matters. It's exactly why we choose to record here. So do yourself a favor, get down the C-bar, grab a drink, soak it all in, and tell them.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Hey Van, you know, you've seen and not heard. You you did not you did not speak, you did not buck the system. So I went along and and part of me wanted I guess I wanted someone to come in and rescue. I wanted a god that would come in and rescue. I wanted um I wanted what they were selling. Yeah. I wanted what they were selling. They're very good marketers, weren't they? They certainly were. 100%. And but you know, when you're having one when you're having a priest behaving like this and and you've got priests and nuns and brothers protecting priests that were doing this, it's very hard to to to believe what they're selling. Even as a child, you could see through it.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I guess I bucked the system. I was in trouble a lot, probably from that in that regard.

SPEAKER_07 13:39

Was it or 100%?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

I when I was um the event that I actually I call it an event. It sounds like it was um you're going up to the theater and something exciting is gonna happen. But it was, you know, going to a school camp to be molested and you know, raped or whatever.

SPEAKER_07 13:58

You knew it was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Oh, f absolutely we knew, you know.

SPEAKER_07 14:03

Um stand out or was there a few others in your class or that? It's a really interesting question because These ones aren't notes, it's just some ad libbing as as we're going here.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

It's a really good question because I I remember saying to my detective um when we were you know going through the investigation process I remember saying to her, why me? Like I wanted the answer. I was 53 years of age and I wanted to know why me. What did I do wrong? What did I do to you know cause it? Yeah. And she said opportunity. You were just there. And that's the truth. Uh you were just that opportunity at that hour at school that day, and you know, that's how it happened. Or you were you were the person in in the at the camp that he could grab at that moment. I remember my classmates during the in um investigation, we went to um lunch together and my classmates said, you know, do you think it was dark-haired girls? Because I was a dark-haired girl. Do you think it was dark-haired girls? Oh no, remember such and such? Yeah, well, she had red hair. And I remember, you know, they were sitting there discussing, oh, was it because they were they were bigger girls, but they were smaller, you know? And I listened to them and and then I said opportunity, because I'd already brought it up with my detective. And sadly, that's all it was. It's just opportunity.

SPEAKER_07 15:34

So you think they they you you seem like a a confident young girl like Swift Streets back then? Um, from my recollection, as I said to you before, I I went to college at uh primary school at the Holy Family, and apparently there was a bad one there, but I was never knew much about it. But I went to Salesian College Chad's if you look in the uh back there with the Salesian brothers, it's not that flash of record. Um fortunately nothing happened to me, and as I said to you earlier, I don't know how you feel, but um let's let's talk about it, and I can't say that. But I do remember distinctly in in year seven or eight things that looked a bit weird to me, and later in life I've sort of tried to diagnose it at opportunity and a weaker sort of person they may have prayed on, but that's that's not the class, because I was a footy jock.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yep, no.

SPEAKER_07 16:32

And I thought they never c just could have been anyone.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, and I remember in grade six, you know, I won't name name, but just before you go, so did your classmates have any idea this was going on or you knew?

SPEAKER_07 16:46

Oh, so the other girls knew too.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Maybe not everybody knew, but yeah, people knew that he was he was creep. You know, they called him Creepy Cream, they called him Father Feeler. They called him Way back then. This was his nicknames. You know, and and you know, people talked about, you know, kids ran to him. You know, it that's not the case, you know. We were sent to him. You know, at this particular time, I was gonna say to you just now about grade six. I remember we were all in class and and uh Sister Marie Therese was our uh was in in the classroom as well. She was grade five. There must have been a mixture going on because we had another um we had a lay teacher as well. And he sent for a particular girl um to go over to see him at the uh church. And you know, the the girl was told to to get up and go and she stood up and she said, Father Father Cream wants stinky finger.

SPEAKER_05 17:54

Way back then.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Way back then, and I remember sitting there and and I didn't understand why she was saying it, because I was still naive despite what he was doing. And then when she came back, I remember looking at her and she was so sad. She just looked so sad. And you know, you can't tell me why wasn't the nuns and and you know the priests and the brothers why weren't they doing anything about it? They were complicit.

SPEAKER_07 18:33

Yeah. What was it it was was it something they signed on for? But you know, their marketing was faith and uplift and joy and teaching and but yeah, I mean it's quite it's unfathomable. Uh yeah, yeah. I mean I I see where you're heading here and I see where I'm trying to describe it, but it's in un undescribable.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, you can't, you can't. It's and it's hard for people to grasp that this went on every day. You know, he he went to four different Catholic schools every day. You know, there was uh the Goodship Primary School, there was St. Joseph's Primary, there was Saint Jose High School, and there was St. Kieran's High School.

SPEAKER_07 19:15

All in Mount Isa.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

All in Mount Isa.

SPEAKER_07 19:17

So you think do you think this shift of these uh predators, um they the the archbishop maybe have sent them to We only had a bishop. A bishop. Yep. Um of places it was a bit easier for them to behave badly?

SPEAKER_01 19:32

I think they it didn't matter where. I don't think places was uh an issue. I think it was just rotation. They just rotated them.

SPEAKER_07 19:40

They just If they got too hot in the kitchen that's the next place. But they wouldn't they wouldn't tell that diocese that we've got one coming in or anything.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I don't know what they told them, but I just know that so Cream, I was born in uh May 1965 and Cream became a a priest in uh June, I think it was, and he was part of the Townsville Diocese, uh Catholic Diocese, and so he started off in Townsville. Must have got hot here pretty quick because then he was sent to Charters Towers. From Charters Towers, um, he came to Manisa in 73. He was in Man Isa to 81, um, when it was obviously getting way too hot by that stage. So they sent him back to Townsville, then they shipped him off to the Army. Yep, he was with the Army Army Corps and and therefore he was the chaplain around families, which is pretty scary.

SPEAKER_07 20:34

Has anything come out there?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

I'm sure that would have been um well protected in in uh information.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Um one of my things that I'm very angry about is that, you know, Crean has medals um for his service as an army chaplain. And I know I've been told they can't be stripped of him from him because um they are his time service medals. You know, the amount of time he's been was there in in the army. And I I don't care what medal it is, it should be stripped because it's an absolute insult to our army, um, our military men and women. It's an absolute insult that he has got any medal. Just like anyone that's got an OAM or any medal at all, if they're convicted, they should be stripped. And and if they're on charges, they should actually have it taken, or you know, they should have it removed until such time that they're cleared or or, you know, if they are convicted, then it's permanently. It's an insult. And this is where we need to start drawing a line in the sand as a society. But I'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_07 21:41

Yeah, it's uh easy podcasts to get distracted because we will try and do this in segments, but I fully understand that point to your uh your heading there. So I don't know if it's a a question. And I'll ask questions here. We can edit, we can do what we like and and and make it, but uh I mean I was following it. Feel right, but that would have been the first time it happened to you.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

First time I met him. Yeah. 100% it was immediate. And I remember, it's funny because I was so excited because I had a my family in Ireland had sent out my cat and my first Holy Communion veil. And I was so excited. My mum had you know made this dress and I had the veil. And so my first Holy Communion was gonna be a you know, for me it was gonna be a wonderful memory. And it's you know, obviously it's a memory for very, very different reasons now. All of a sudden the veil and the dress meant nothing. No. And he walked out of that toilet, you know, like nothing had happened. This is a man that a victim told me was sitting, she was sitting on his, he made her sit on his lap at her grandmother's house, and while her grandmother was making him a Christmas cake at the other end of the table, he was sexually abusing the child on his lap.

SPEAKER_07 23:10

Oi! Just a quick one from me, Buzz. Massive shout out to the legends at the sea bar down on the strand. Now, if you haven't been there, what are you doing? Cold beers, cracking food, and a view over Magnetic Island that'll make you forget every problem you walked in with. But more than that, these guys actually give us stuff about towns. They back the locals, support the community, and create a place where people can come together. And that really matters. It's exactly why we choose to record here. So do yourself a favor, get down the C-bar, grab a drink, soak it all in, and tell 'em a buzz sent you. Like, you're sitting here telling me this story now, and and my next question. And I mean I can't rationalise it now, right? So I'm I'm gonna how how how is an an eight to ten-year-old kid trying to I mean, we're trying to rationalise it together here, and uh I'm lost for words, to be quite honest. Very rarely do I get lost for words.

SPEAKER_06 24:20

How how does an eight-year-old or a ten-year-old now try and rationalise this?

SPEAKER_01 24:24

You can't. And maybe if we fast forward to it when I was eleven or twelve.

SPEAKER_07 24:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

When he walked into the I turned I was in the shower block at at my school camp at Late Lindaro, Mount Isa. And um, I was in the shower block and I blamed myself for years because I was late getting to the showers because I'd been off distracted. I was I was ass writing. And uh so I got to the shower block late, and for many, many years as an adult, even I blamed myself for not getting in and getting my shower earlier. Not my responsibility at all. And I turned around and he was there, so I won't describe, but he you know, he sexually abused, obviously. And that was the this was the turning point because I came out of that shower block and and I went straight to Sister Bernadette, um, who was my class nun, but she was also obviously, you know, grade seven teacher, so she which was the head of primary back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she said, um, I said, you know, I wanted to go home, I was sick, I needed to go home, call my dad. And anyway, there was conversation that ensued, and I basically said what Crean had done to me, and you know, sh she was she wasn't shocked. That's the thing that really gets me even now. She just stood there like, yeah, okay, but you shouldn't be saying it. It was more about what I shouldn't be doing, not what he had done.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

You felt a little bit that you were the victim at this stage.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Oh, I was blamed well and well and truly for talking. And I went home and I told my dad, and on the way home, I told my dad, and my dad went home and told my mum, and things ensued, but then I knew when I went back to school that nothing had been done about it. And I by this stage I was getting a little bit rebellious, you know, like I was angry. And so I went to the head nun, Sister Frances, and I told her. And I got I got the cuts.

SPEAKER_07 26:39

And then can I just interrupt you there? Sorry, but what was wrong with your damn parents? Not uh like me as a father, I've got a son and a daughter. They're well until the old now, but um, if if my daughter had to come home to me and told me a story about what um so doesn't have to be a priest, take anyone that done, I would have gone and fucking killed him.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And I understand people feel that way, and I understand people question that, but it wasn't just my parents that were like that. My mother was very, very Catholic. The first thing that came out of her mouth was he's a good man, he's a man of the cloth. You can't say something like that. The children would definitely disbelieve, and a lot of that was fed by the church. A lot of that was when parents even went to the nuns and the brothers and the priests. They were told us children were telling lies. It was a whole different ball game back then. It wasn't like today, where we have people are far more vocal and people will stand up against things.

SPEAKER_06 27:49

Do you think kids will talk more now, they will, and tell their parents, or their parents will stand up? Or you think it's still a bit of cover up?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

I think there'd still be cover up at time, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And and my father did do something. I've got no way of proving it, but he did have um very red, bruised knuckles.

SPEAKER_06 28:08

Uh oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

So I'm he he did leave the house and he did go somewhere. And I know that, you know, he knowing my dad was a he would not have been a um Irish background, zip you know.

SPEAKER_07 28:23

He'd be a hard hard little bastard, wouldn't he? He was a strong man.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

You know, the bottom line here, you you've got to remember back then too, and to a large degree, I think even now, the police were heavily influenced by the church. So, you know, if you went to the the the sergeant at at the police station, oh man, and you said something about a Catholic priest.

SPEAKER_07 28:48

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Our parents would have been, you know, if they would have got in trouble.

SPEAKER_07 28:54

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

But you know, so a lot of people stand in judgment, and I don't like, you know, I don't one of the reasons I spoke out, and we'll talk about that later, was actually to defend my mother. Um, it wasn't my parents that had to take responsibility, it was the church.

SPEAKER_07 29:13

Yeah, I absolutely get that because as you say back then, and I don't think it's it's the the um police in the church are that that'd be still you know each other's poppins a little bit. But you you didn't make a lot of sense back then because I remember our fa we were in a tennis club which was a holy family community. I remember going to church every Sunday, but it was an event we used to go away together to Easter tennis tournaments, but it was all the same congregation, and there were a lot of policemen and police sergeants involved as families in that. In fact, the the chief commissioner of police in Melbourne was very good friends of my family and is very end of the faith. Um, and I can see how parents back then would be scared because the old cop was back then would give them all to do and it it was a different thing, I mean that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Yeah, and people today, you know, they they think in terms of today, and you have to go back and think in terms of 50 years ago.

SPEAKER_07 30:18

Yeah, and my initial reaction then is and you've got me because I would have said I would have belt gun and belted the shit out of the priest. But back then I would have had to have the fear of the police force. If I belted the police, then I'd probably do some time, or the police would get me for something, or make my life miserable. Absolutely. And yeah, kudos, your your parents were I'm I'm sort of, and I won't be shy and saying it. So up until that moment, I thought your mum and dad might have been a little bit weak.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

No.

SPEAKER_07 30:47

But they weren't because they had this other influence.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

No, and now that is fair enough. And my parents did, even in when we get to my teenage years, you know, they did a lot of things that, you know, I don't think they're I don't think the general public up until now with my story have really known. Because there's only so much that got printed in the newspaper. Yes, well But there's a whole lot more that didn't get said for for what uh got a story it. And you know, mm the the deputy editor um Chris McMahon did an absolutely brilliant job of my story.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

So yeah, I'm I'm happy with what they did, but you're limited to what you can do.

SPEAKER_07 31:32

Um so anyway, while we're on that point there, do you if you you the media obviously with lots of things going on, we won't bring up particular subjects, what's happening locally at the moment, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole at the moment. But they would still know a lot more and be involved a lot more what they actually write.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

I think they're very they got their hands tied to I think a lot of journalists But if it's the truth, Kathleen, what what the truth can't get you in trouble. Yes it can.

SPEAKER_06 32:02

No, but it shouldn't at the end of the day, should it?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

But it can. And it's a very this is the thing that nobody wants to talk about with child sex abuse and and it it's look, whether people like it or not, it was political. It's political and it, you know, it people do have to be careful what they say and because jobs and businesses and everything are on the line.

SPEAKER_06 32:29

And Yeah, but if you've done the crime the time.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

I know. I'm not arguing with you in that regard.

SPEAKER_07 32:35

Look, it's the point I'll bring up now, and I'll bring it up earlier, we might talk about it more, and I know it's off-subject, and I've just said uh David Christopher's and and and Queensland are trying to bring in this juvenile uh adult uh adult crime, adult time. Yep. I know it's off subject. Statistically, though, these juveniles that are committing the crime and going through the bail system, what do you call it? What's another word? Uh corrections. Corrections system. You can give me some stats on that just briefly on this initial podcast, and we'll confirm it a bit later on in the series. But most of these kids, or the high percentage of these kids that are doing this crime have been sexually abused. Sexually abused, correct?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Yes. If you had a choice and I want listeners to think about this, and I'm not agreeing with I'm not agreeing with youth going out and committing crime, please hear me carefully. But I want people to think like a like a child, not an adult, but think like a child. Um if you had a choice of going home and getting raped or going and hanging out at the shopping centre car park, what are you gonna do? Because I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go down to the shopping centre car park, and then that shopping centre car park, there's gonna be others that are in my predicament, and then when you get a few of us together, then you know we're gonna start mucking around and doing stuff. Um again, I repeat, I'm not agreeing with crime, children doing crime. Um but there needs to be a little bit more openness about the background as to why we get to that point. And I don't know about the youth detention percentages, but I've been told up to 90%, and of course, every prisoner is going to deny this because it's not something that they want to admit. But I've been told up to 90% of those in prison are actually child sex abuse victims. I didn't say they're the perpetrators, hear me very carefully. I said they are the child sex abuse victims, and the child sex abuse has led them to a to the point that they've ended up in prison with the life that we end up going, the pathways that so many child sex abuse victims end up taking. There's a very textbook um textbook uh pattern pathway that so many victims end up going down. And I actually now actually say to victims when they come to me for support and they say I'm humiliated to tell you this or I'm so ashamed of myself or whatever, and I say, Don't worry, mate, you're just textbook. And they are, they're just textbook because we start out being sexually abused, we turn to alcohol, that doesn't numb it after a while, and we end up down drugs, and then where does drugs go? Crime. Crime, and then if we don't go that pathway, you know, we end up in relationships that are DV. It there's textbook patterns of behaviour of the child sex abuse victim. But I'll talk more about that now as we go down.

SPEAKER_07 36:00

It's just about an episode, but I just want to you you mentioned uh right there to to wrap up part one here that correct my memory's a bit bit shot. That you said they feel humiliated to speak.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

They're ashamed of what their pri how their life has turned out.

SPEAKER_07 36:15

What what would you say just wrapping up part one? Is it anyone that's feeling that way that's that's too you know, it ain't it ain't weak to speak. Well I don't like that. I mean, I don't even like it with uh young Harrison Deks I did the other day who's who suffered um um some some mental health issues, but it wasn't through sex with the boost, it was just through the black dog. And he said on the podcast, it's alright to say it it ain't weak to speak, but just some little bit of advice could you give that to try and dehumiliate the process, or is that It's not your blame or your shame. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

100%. It's not your blame, it's not your shame. So speak.

SPEAKER_07 36:55

Yeah, very good. Alright, legends, that's where we'll wrap up part one, episode 56 of Predator at the Pulpit, and we'll just take a short moment. Because what you've just heard isn't easy to sit with, and it's not meant to be. We started this episode looking out over one of those beautiful views in North Queensland, the water calm, magnetic island, just sitting there like nothing's wrong in the world. But today proves something we all need to understand. Just because it looks calm on the surface doesn't mean everything underneath is okay. What you've just heard today is not just a story, it's truth. It's courage, and it's the voice that refused to stay silent any longer. So to Kathleen Walsh, I want to say this clearly, very clearly. I see you, I hear you, and I respect the hell out of you. Because this, this is what real courage looks like. Not the highlight reels, not the filters, not the bullshit we see every day. This standing up, speaking out, and carrying the weight of something the world would rather ignore. Now listen carefully. If anything in this episode hit you, if it stirred something in you, if it made you feel uncomfortable, well good. Because that's where change starts. But if it triggered something deeper, if you're struggling, if you're carrying something you've never told anyone, you don't have to carry it alone anymore. Reach out. Talk to someone you trust, or contact services like Lifeline because your story matters. And I'll say this again. What happened to you is not your fault. You've just heard it. It's not your shame. You've just heard it. The conversation doesn't end there. In fact, so we go deeper. We talk accountability, we talk systems, we talk about what needs to change. Because silence silence is where this stuff survives. And we're not doing silence anymore. This is who is a hero. I'm back. This is where stories get told. The ones that matter. Don't forget. Another die.