A 14-year-old girl disclosed live on air this morning that she was raped at 12, during 2Day FM’s Kyle and Jackie O breakfast show.
The disclosure occurred live on air during a lie detector test, a regular segment during which a person is strapped to a detector and peppered with questions by their partner/mother/sister/best friend, and moderated by Austereo’s Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.
Sandilands’ nemeses, the “fun police” Media Watch, gave us a run down of 2Day FM’s form on lie detectors last year. According to MediaWatch, “contestants have had their honesty tested on subjects like STDs; masturbation; anal sex; threesomes; and eating faeces during sex.” After one particularly controversial episode, Jackie O said:
JACKIE O: I, I apologise to anybody out there who has been offended with this segment that we’ve done all week, I know it’s probably gone too far and I do apologise about that.
KYLE SANDILANDS: What sort of a dork have you turned into overnight? —2Day FM, The Kyle and Jackie O Show, 27th June, 2008
This morning the person in question was 14-year-old Rachel, who was strapped to the machine and then interrogated by her concerned mother, who said that she was worried about Rachel indulging in under age sex and drugs [LISTEN HERE]:
JACKIE O: We’re all a bit nervous actually because mum Michelle has brought her daughter in to go on the lie detecto r…
JACKIE O: What’s your worst fear, is it the sex, is it the lying, the possibility of doing drugs, smoking?
MICHELLE: Drugs and sex and older boys …
JACKIE O: Has she told you she’s had sex before or do you think she’s a virgin?
MICHELLE: … I think she might have had sex before.
JACKIE O: Right. But she hasn’t said anything?
MICHELLE: No.
The segment began on an uncomfortable note:
JACKIE O: [laughs] Alright we have her hooked up to the lie detector!
KYLE: Ohhhh!
JACKIE O: She’s not happy! I just saw her listening to that replay!
KYLE: How are you Rachel?
RACHEL: I’m scared!
Undeterred, Kyle and Jackie O pressed mother Michelle to continue. Rachel was then grilled about her school attendance, and insisted angrily that she’d never wagged, even though the lie detector said it was so.
Next up, virginity:
MICHELLE: Have you had sex?
Rachael, sounding uncomfortable and resentful about the line of questioning, answered:
RACHEL: I’ve already told you about this and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny! [PAUSE] Oh, OK! I got raped when I was 12-years-old!
**SILENCE **
KYLE: …. right. And is that the only experience you’ve had?
MICHELLE: I only found out about that a couple of months ago. Yes, I knew about that.
RACHEL: And yet you still asked me the question.
MICHELLE: The question was, have you had sex, other than that?
JACKIE O: Rachel, I’m really sorry, we didn’t actually know that that was the case, and I think we might actually abort this segment, I had no idea that you’ve been through that, so I’m really sorry, and we’ll just let you off the hook, I think, I think it’s best not to continue. Are you all right? It’s okay, you just take a breather, it’s fine. We always have counselling services here, Rachel, if you need that. Have you had any counselling over this issue?
MICHELLE: No, she hasn’t.
JACKIE O: Okay, well we have all of the right people in place, if you need any help or support in regards to that, which it sounds like you might. I’m really sorry, I had no idea that this had happened to you. I don’t think we would have gone ahead with that, had we known. Okay, honey, we’ll just let you go for a while. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that was…
KYLE: Okay, mum, sorry, we needed to — that’s something we should have probably known before we started this.
JACKIE O: Yeah, definitely.
KYLE: So let’s do that, let’s get you — if you guys haven’t had any counselling, or anyone to talk to about that, we’re happy to pick up the bill for that, we’ve got them here. Do you want that, mum?
MICHELLE: Yes, that’d be good, that’ll be good.
JACKIE O: Yes, okay.
KYLE: And that might — you know, that might — going through that, might answer some of the questions that, you know, you guys are having difficulty communicating with.
MICHELLE: Okay, yes.
KYLE: Okay, Rach, thanks for coming in, darl, sorry about that. Okay, we’re out, everyone.
Jenny Parkes, 2Day FM General Manager, told Crikey this morning:
Kyle and Jackie and 2Day FM were saddened by the turn of events this morning. In the normal course of preparing the segment all due care and consideration was given to the family and clearly we didn’t know anything about this traumatic incident.
The moment we became aware of it was live on air and we brought it to an end as soon as we possibly could. As is only appropriate, we are offering all the assistance we can to the family, including counselling, in what is of course an extraordinarily difficult situation.
Crikey also put in a call to ACMA but they didn’t get back to us before deadline.
Sounds like an appalling segment, regardless of this particularly unpleasant turn. Why must we revel in others’ discomfiture or pain? It’s perverse.
[edited] Being raped at any age is horrible, but when you’re in early puberty, haven’t yet worked out who you are or developed your own inner strength, it must be particularly psychologically (not to mention physically) damaging to endure such an experience.
At least this sorry saga will get the poor girl the help she needs.
An obnoxious d-ckhead and an airhead have something blow up it their faces. Pity it wasn’t a hand grenade! Also, what was the mother thinking? There are child protection laws in NSW. From this distance, it seems they were breached.
Is this mother a complete imbecile? No mother would subject a child to this kind interrogation on public radio — and it was the mother who asked the questions knowing that her child had been attacked. This is doing my head in.
While my dislike for Kyle and Jackie O is obvious to anyone who’s ever heard me rant about commercial radio, the mother in this matter needs to be prosecuted for what she’s done here. As the step-parent of two teenage women, I could never imagine subjecting them to anything like this and would be appalled if they ever had to experience it.
Both the mother and the radio station need to do some serious thinking. The mother is clearly unbalanced to put her child through that, but I also think the station needs to take responsibility for allowing a child to be put on that segment, regardless of the mother’s permission.
It sounds like a ridiculous segment anyway, but if two consenting adults want to air their dirty laundry on the radio, then that’s fair enough for them. However, it is almost tantamount to child abuse when a mother takes her child’s privacy and drags it onto the public airwaves like this, particularly knowing what had happened to her!
It is beyond belief – I’m with Wendy, it’s doing my head in!!