Fears rapist robbed more girls
Appeal to find man who stole a childhood
‘‘ SHE SET IT UP, THE WHOLE THING. THAT’S NOT A MOTHER. PETA BUTLER
PETA Butler was just 16 when the most evil of betrayals played out in a down-market Toowoomba hotel room.
She was raped by a balding, fat man, three times her age while her mother - who organised the whole thing - sat outside, metres away smoking cigarettes.
It was a decade before she was “strong enough” to make her mother admit the unimaginable, and get her jailed for it.
Today, as Therese Butler languishes in jail, Peta is speaking out.
“I think to myself ‘how could a mum do what she did?’” Peta told A Current Affair.
“How could a mum sit outside knowing that their daughter is being raped by her potential boyfriend?”
In an interview interspersed with horrifying audio of the dreadful telephone confession which helped bring Therese Butler to justice, Peta described how she waited helplessly for her mother to intervene. It was a moment that brought a tear to the eye of the seasoned journalist who replied: “Yeah, she did. She’d served you up to him to save yourself.”
Asked why she took so long to finally make her mother admit to the horrific crime, Peta replied: “I wasn’t strong enough for it at that time. I didn’t think people would believe me.”
Horrific audio of the phone call confession, coaxed out of Therese by Peta with the unstinting back up of police, was played.
“I wouldn’t have taken you down there unless you were 16,” Therese Butler tells Peta.
Peta says: “I told him no, I was crying, I was telling him no.”
Her mother insists the man said “he wasn’t gonna touch you”.
She continues: “It was still. yeah ... it was still rape, but you were 16. I wouldn’t let him touch you under, under 16, no way”.
She seems oblivious to her daughter’s involuntary part gasp, part moan, part cry of protest over the telephone.
She maintains that “Thommo” promised he had not touched her, then nervously asks her daughter if there is anyone else there who can hear the phone call.
The phone call last 30 minutes.
Therese Butler was sentenced to four years in prison, suspended after 12 months, after pleading guilty to procuring a child for carnal knowledge.
Police are now hunting for Peta’s rapist - a man believed to be known as “Thommo”, who Peta said spoke with Therese online for about two years before convincing her to allow him to assault her daughter.
Reliving the trip to Toowoomba, she said the pair had travelled by bus from Brisbane, and her mother slept most of the way.
After a trip to McDonald’s, Therese bought alcohol, encouraging Peta to drink it because it would make her warmer.
When “Thommo” arrived at the motel, Therese “leapt into his arms”, Peta said.
Peta said Therese told her to go to the other room, and she went, thinking they wanted some “alone time”. Then the door opened: “and it was him”.
“After about five minutes ... I went to leave the room ... but that’s when he stopped me,” Peta said.
“He raped me for a couple of minutes.”
When her mother failed to help, and Peta emerged from the room, her mother hugged her and said, “It’s all going to be OK”, and Peta said she knew it had all been set up.
Adding to the horror, “Thommo” stayed they night.
Releasing a police sketch of Peter “Thommo” Thompson on ACA, Peta said she remembered “those eyes”.
“I remember them popping out. He was extremely obese. But those eyes. He was about, maybe, 175cm. Once you see them, you can’t get past them,” she said.
Peta now fears what will happen when her mother gets out - probably in October this year - after Therese threatened her for all the court to hear as she was sentenced.
“Like, she set it up, the whole thing. That’s not a mother,” Peta said.
Police also believe it is likely the man has hurt other girls and women.
Child protection detectives have released a computer-generated image of a man believed to be responsible for the rape.
Anyone who believes they have been hurt by this man is urged to visit their local police station and speak with investigators.
Police are hoping someone may recognise the man depicted in a computer-generated image that was produced with Ms Butler’s input.