Confronting a monster
Actor tells of facing pedophile
Former Neighbours star Madeleine West has revealed what she told the monster who sexually abused her for years when she came face-to-face with him.
The actor gave News Corp exclusive permission to publish sections of her victim impact statement which she read out directly to serial pedophile Peter White, 73, during his sentencing in the Victorian County Court in December.
He was jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to 33 sex offence charges involving multiple children in the small Victorian country town, an hour north of Melbourne, where West grew up.
In an extraordinary twist, which can now be revealed, the mum-of-six went to his house wearing a wire as part of a daring police sting, in a bid to get him to confess.
West – along with other victims who were abused between the aged of 4 and 14 – spoke in court about how his evil actions had affected their lives.
Her victim impact statement was so confronting White tried to turn away at one point – but she demanded he look at her.
“I will draw great satisfaction knowing that because we finally found the courage to reclaim our history and fight for justice, that is how the world will remember you,” West said in her impact statement.
“Not as the friendly plumber, the best mate, the kind husband, the loving father and grandfather.
“No, the world will remember you as Peter Vincent White: The Monster who sexually abused little children.”
She described how White groomed parents to think he was “everyone’s best friend”, but that he was actually “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
She told him as a result of the abuse her life had been an “open sore refusing to heal”.
“Between the ages of four and 10, life should be magical, playful,” West said to White in court.
“But you took that from me. Filled my dreams with monsters, with shadows that didn’t retreat upon waking.
“You violated me, in the worst possible way.”
West told White how she spent her whole life hating her skin so much she starved herself and wished herself dead.
She told White how 40 years on and that she was still in therapy.
West told News Corp being able to tell her abuser how she felt had allowed her to reclaim power over him.
“I was very candid about recounting what he had done to me and the impact it had, how it had insidiously infiltrated and permeated my entire life,” she said.
West said the impact statement was the “end note of 40 years’ of trauma and the end of the story that began when she was four years old”.