Nina Funnell

And I felt like this moment of like, have I done the wrong thing?

Now I absolutely don't think I've done the wrong thing at all and would make the same decision again.

Did they ever find the guy?

No.

So that's an interesting story in and of itself.

So that night, they, you know, they took the swabs and so on.

And because I had blood, we didn't know if it was my blood or his blood.

And there was a few things.

They ended up being able to find his DNA on me, but they have never found a match in the system.

Now,

The interesting thing about that was it took them more than six months to actually test the DNA.

And that was six months of my life where firstly, I was thinking, you know, this is this guy fits the criteria of the serial rapist, wouldn't you?

And the level of violence involved in the fact that he was a complete stranger, you would think that they would make it a priority to test that kind of DNA.

evidently not.

It wasn't until I wrote a press release and spoke to Channel 7 and put pressure on the then Premier Morris Yemma to step in that they actually went and tested the DNA.

And again, that begs the question of why are victim survivors having to advocate for justice in their own cases, let alone systemic reform?

And what happened was after I'd

you know highlighted the fact that six months had gone by and the DNA had still not been tested the premier did step in and ask for it to be tested and that was good for me in the sense that the squeaky wheel gets the grease I got my answer but it just meant that everybody else in the queue now had to wait one extra day yeah and I think that was like that was a in some ways that was a

real learning lesson for me in terms of campaigning and advocacy of I'd made a strategic error there.

I shouldn't have asked for my DNA, the DNA in my case to be tested.