Only 23 per cent of sexual offences reported to police get to court, according to the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency. United Nations statistics put the rate of rape in Australia at about twice the international average.

We have a dreadful problem. There is a pressing need to change the legal system; victims are terrified of reliving their trauma in prolonged court proceedings that submit them to brutal questioning and to sharing space with the alleged perpetrators of such heinous violence.

There is a pressing need to improve treatment of victims within the legal system.

There could be no more compelling an example of the long-overdue need to make the court process far less intimidating for victims than the coverage today by writer Miki Perkins of the situation of Amy (not, for legal reasons, her real name). It is harrowing to read and contemplate. But it is important that as many people as possible read it, for it shows why the system must be revamped.

One evening in November 2015, Amy, then 14 years old, was allegedly raped in Geelong by three brothers, Kevin Andrew Wild, Allan Mark Wild and Brodie Wild. These men were charged with multiple counts of rape. They pleaded not guilty to all charges, and were committed to stand trial. The process was such an ordeal that Amy and her parents reluctantly decided to drop their pursuit of justice; they discontinued the trial.