To Be Believed

To Be Believed is the harrowing, ultimately uplifting, story of a local hero who became Western Australia's most notorious convicted paedophile - and the victims who took him on. Maggie Dawkins records the courage and tenacity of young men from the Great Southern region of Western Australia who became advocates, lobbied for a parliamentary inquiry and changed the law so child victims of sexual abuse could sue for compensation. It is a tale of redemption. To Be Believed is also whistleblower Maggie Dawkins's own story. As a young woman, employed to coordinate a pilot program for unemployed young people, she became gradually aware of the sickness pervading the town of Katanning. Her endeavours to expose the evil tested her resilience in the face of a hostile community - at best in denial and at worst, in collusion. The saga revealed in To Be Believed remains ongoing. What began with the idealism of universal schooling turned into the unspeakable depravity of child sexual abuse, enabled by Church, State, and public bodies. At last, retributive justice is now intervening for the victims.