At six years old, John Cardamone should have been having fun playing with friends. Instead, his childhood innocence was stolen by a family member who sexually abused him over a two-year nightmare. Each Sunday, Cardamone woke filled with dread as he prepared to visit the house where his abuser lived.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today His family had no idea what was happening behind closed doors. Desperate to escape, he would invent illnesses and reasons to stay home, sometimes forcing himself to vomit. “I remember explicitly trying to tell my mum at different times, and I just remember I couldn’t find the words,” he told 7NEWS.
com.au. “I was so terrified.
” It took two years before Cardamone found his voice to speak up. Now, 30 years on, the Melbourne father-of-two is using his voice to help protect other children from abuse. One in four Australians experience child sexual abuse, according to the Australian Child Maltreatment Study.
Almost 90 per cent of this is committed by someone they know, often someone they trust. Cardamone’s abuser used threats of violence against him and his mother to scare him into silence. “He knew how close I was to my mum,” he said.
“Being so young, I believed him.” Loved ones could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong, as the six-year-old shrunk in on himself, shrouded by shame and secrecy. “I remember being in the laundry and I was crying,” he said.
“I was misbehaving, yelling, screaming. “My poor mum never.