Madeleine West is known for her incredible performances on the screen, but behind the scenes, she is fighting for the rights of those affected by child abuse after experiencing trauma during her childhood.
The actress has been open about her experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse, with her eight-part podcast series Predatory calling for the sex offender registry to be made public and for compensation for survivors.
Madeleine revealed in a new interview that she faced her abuser to extract a confession from the man, who was a beloved neighbour in her regional town.
Face to face
Speaking on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast, she recalled the moment she saw him again, decades after his abuse began.
Madeleine returned to her small Victorian town fitted with a wire in June 2022, four years after reporting her experience to the police.
Her abuser, Peter Vincent White, was her next-door neighbour and the town plumber, and was well-liked by many in the community.
© Instagram“No one would dream that this wonderful, generous person who held fabulous parties and invited everyone in the neighbourhood, who’d pop over…would fix your block toilet without batting an eye, was using that very positive public facade, to hide the most horrific…heinous, cataclysmic crime you can imagine,” she shared on the podcast.
“His house was the most magnificent house in the neighbourhood, with all the bits and pieces that would attract children. And his wife was a frequent babysitter for the neighbourhood, so children were drawn to that area.”
Peter began abusing Madeleine when she was just four years old. She arrived at his house decades later, asking to talk with the plumber and his wife.
Getting a confession
© Instagram“I said to him, ‘I wanted to take this time to talk to you because we had such a special relationship, and I understand that people are sometimes driven by needs and wants, that not everyone understands. But we understand. I just feel like I need to hear it acknowledged. I need us to talk about that,'” she explained.
According to the 45-year-old, Peter began crying, and apologised for his crimes. “I wrapped it up, and just by saying, ‘Thank you for inviting me into your home, but just thank you for acknowledging that. That makes so many things fall into place, and just made me feel so much better,'” she said.
“I walked out the door and nearly collapsed. It’s the finest piece of acting I’ve ever done.”
Gaining closure
© InstagramPeter was taken into police custody and was later sentenced to 15 years in jail. For the Neighbours actress, this ended years of emotional turmoil.
“That was the ultimate detox. That was allowing me to shrug off the cross of blame and shame and depression and self-hatred that I’d carried my entire life for the first time,” she said.
“I could feel thousands of women and thousands of men who’ve never had an opportunity to say the words to discharge that trauma — I could feel them behind me in that moment, and I’ll never forget it. It was life-changing.”
The star is now focused on her new arrival, after announcing that she was pregnant with her seventh child in January. She is a proud mother to Phoenix, 19, Hendrix, 16, Xascha, 14, Xanthe, 12, and twins Xalia and Margaux, 10, whom she welcomed with her ex-partner, Shannon Bennett.
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