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The Imperfects

Reuben Williams - What Happened After My Sexual Assault

10 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What was the impact of Reuben's decision to report his assault?

0.031 - 4.26 Hugh van Cuylenburg

The following episode of The Imperfects features a conversation about sexual assault.

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Chapter 2: How can friends best support someone who has experienced trauma?

4.761 - 8.428 Hugh van Cuylenburg

If this is too much for you right now, then we suggest you skip this one and come back when you're ready.

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9.811 - 24.637 Reuben Williams

At first I thought, this is a dream, this isn't happening to you right now. And I, like, start regaining consciousness, and I realize, like, you are in a dangerous situation right now. You're not safe. Holy shit, you've just been sexually assaulted.

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Chapter 3: How did Reuben feel in the immediate aftermath of the assault?

25.659 - 34.898 Josh van Cuylenburg

In 2019, Reuben Williams made a decision to pursue justice. This decision not only changed his own life, but inspired change in the lives of many others.

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34.878 - 52.681 Reuben Williams

I thought if it gets back to me that he's done this to somebody else and traumatized them for the rest of their life and you, Reuben, could have stopped him in his tracks, you're probably going to feel 10 times worse than you do right now. And so that's when I thought I'm going to make a statement. The hardest part of that was dad. You mean telling dad? Telling dad, yeah.

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53.462 - 75.934 Reuben Williams

I get in my car, start driving. I make it about 100 meters down the road. or if I have to pull over because I'm crying so hard I can't see. When you dismiss the believability of victims, you dismiss your own son. I was really worried about a few key things like what would it be like seeing my perpetrator for the first time? What would it be like being in a courtroom for the first time?

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Chapter 4: What role did privilege play in Reuben's healing journey?

76.575 - 83.504 Reuben Williams

And so I wrote a letter to myself. Have you got the letter on you? Yeah, I've got it here. Okay.

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86.65 - 90.096 Ryan Shelton

This is the Vulnerability House.

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97.113 - 103.382 Josh van Cuylenburg

In 2019, Reuben Williams made a decision to pursue justice. Gee, straight into it. Yeah, that's what you told me to do.

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103.402 - 108.71 Ryan Shelton

Yeah, I know. I didn't realise it'd be that level of into it. Yeah. Not even a hi, Reuben. No.

Chapter 5: How did Reuben navigate difficult conversations with family?

108.73 - 109.752 Ryan Shelton

Just straight in. Wow.

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109.772 - 110.112 Josh van Cuylenburg

Straight in.

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110.293 - 113.898 Ryan Shelton

This is a first. Oh, that is unprecedented. G'day. How are you? Hi, Reuben.

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Chapter 6: What challenges did Reuben face during the legal process?

113.918 - 117.163 Ryan Shelton

Hi, Reuben. When someone comes over, you say hello.

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117.143 - 121.607 Josh van Cuylenburg

I usually do a bio when they come over. House rules are different everywhere.

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121.747 - 122.247 Ryan Shelton

That's true.

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122.608 - 123.829 Josh van Cuylenburg

Every time Penny walks in?

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Chapter 7: How did Reuben's experiences shape his views on friendship and support?

123.849 - 125.59 Josh van Cuylenburg

Yeah, usually. Oh, wow. Not every time.

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126.571 - 133.257 Ryan Shelton

Okay. All right, continue. The bio. If you guys could not interrupt, that'd be great. Sorry for the formalities.

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133.277 - 144.746 Josh van Cuylenburg

It's okay. In 2019, Reuben Williams made a decision to pursue justice. This decision not only changed his own life, but inspired change in the lives of many others. Growing up in Melbourne, Reuben had a simple dream.

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Chapter 8: What lessons did Reuben learn about speaking up and healing?

145.287 - 164.94 Josh van Cuylenburg

Open the batting for the Australian cricket team. After studying a Bachelor of Sports Management, Reuben landed perhaps the closest job to his dream in the commercial team at Cricket Australia. In 2019, Reuben was assaulted by a colleague after a work party. Within 24 hours, Reuben had told his closest mates.

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165.741 - 184.716 Josh van Cuylenburg

By Monday, he reported the assault to HR, and by the end of the week, he'd made an official statement to police. The entire legal process lasted six years. Amidst all of this, Ruben founded SportsGrad, a career platform and community designed to help people get jobs in the sports industry. Welcome, Ruben.

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185.137 - 186.218 Reuben Williams

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

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186.738 - 198.93 Josh van Cuylenburg

Two things I'd love to talk about is the first one is how we met you, which happened last year, which was an incredible moment for us, just to be very clear. And for me too.

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198.95 - 202.534 Ryan Shelton

We'd like to hear that story about how incredible it was for you to meet us.

203.155 - 220.506 Josh van Cuylenburg

And I also would really like to talk about your love of cricket growing up. Maybe, I mean, I said to everyone before, my guess was your favourite players were, I don't know, I don't want to get too much order because that's a very personal thing, but I'm going to just, with your age, I'm going to say it's probably Hayden Langer and Ponting were probably...

220.486 - 237.153 Reuben Williams

Funny you mentioned Ponting because I saw him at my local cafe on Sunday. What did you do? I was completely starstruck and I would usually like go up to people and say hi. Like I went to Grand Prix wrestling with my mate Sean and he said, oh, Ruben, you're very good at just like going up to people and saying hi.

237.173 - 254.95 Reuben Williams

But I saw Ricky Ponting at the cafe and I freaked out and I was like, no, you can be over there by yourself. I am too scared to approach you. Was he your favourite? Absolutely. Yeah. Him and Hayden. Yeah, absolutely. They were heroes to me. Haydos. That's what we call them, don't we? We do.

254.97 - 257.496 Josh van Cuylenburg

Do you like Greg Blewett?

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