Sarah Lavis

And I didn't want to throw anything off.

Because were you going to give evidence in court?

And that's how it works.

So they come to you and they say, this is what he's been charged with, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated assault.

And when it falls under aggravated, it encompasses all charges.

But then they start negotiating with you.

And so I'm at work on the phone, the DPP is calling me, he's negotiating on the other end with his lawyer and they'll say, okay, we'll plead guilty, but only to these charges.

So everything gets downgraded.

So this is how, like, when you look at sentencing and you think, how did they get such a low sentence for this?

I didn't understand until then that they will come and say, okay, I'm not going to plead guilty, but I'll plead guilty for these charges.

So what's the benefit to you and to the rest of us if he gets his charges downgraded?

And even in my letter that the DPP sent me, there's a full sentence that I have highlighted from the DPP saying how beneficial it would be for me emotionally to not go to trial and take...

Yeah, take this plea.

And so what I didn't realize is once you take aggravated out of it, then all of a sudden, then there's no one aggravated charge.

So then he gets charged with three counts of sexual assault.

You serve them all at the same time concurrently.

If it's aggravated, you've got 20 years.

Because I didn't understand what concurrent meant, no one explained it to me.

And also, like, I'd ring my mum crying and saying, I'm trying to work and I'm negotiating with this arsehole on the other end.

Like, why as a victim?