Sexual abuse survivor urges people in Teesside to speak out about it
Aunee Bhogaita is sharing her story with us
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are hearing from a sexual abuse survivor who is urging people in Teesside to speak out about it rather than suffering in silence.
It was part of an NSPCC safeguarding event earlier this week in Stockton, which aims to highlight that this exists and to normalise conversations - particularly with children.
Aunee Bhogaita "I'm a sexual abuse survivor and coming from a South Asian background where conversations around sexual abuse, child sexual abuse don't take place because they're so taboo. The reason I've come up is to challenge those taboos and start speaking out about the things that actually do happen. They do happen in my community. It's just that we're so scared of talking about it because of stigma, shame and that overall taboo nature of the subject.
"I was sexually molested by a close family member from the age of five to the age of eight. Within the South Asian household, we're very close at that time and things have changed now but back when I was young, families and extended families lived together. I didn't actually come out with it until I was 13 off the back of doing a sex education class and I kind of thought 'hang on a minute, I've seen these things.' Everyone in the class was giggling but to me it was like 'no, something's a bit wrong here because nobody else has been in this situation or seen these things and I have.' So I disclosed when I was 13.
"In the South Asian community, we're a part of the community and what the community think about you as a family is so important. Status is important. People would go to many lengths to preserve this picture perfect image for fear of stigmatisation, so I was actually told I was believed by everybody but I was told not to take it to court because then that would be highlighting what was going on in our family.
"It was almost like my needs weren't put first. Yes, you believe me but it was almost like 'OK, now you just have to keep silent and get on with life.' I was having to act like the perfect family but we were nothing but. It got me to a stage where I started to blame myself for what had happened bceause there wasn't any consequences for this person. Everyone was acting like nothing had ever happened.
"I went down the line of my mental health deteriorated, anorexia, suicide attempts and that kind of just went on a downward spiral. I went into a DV relationship, I developed an addiction that I nearly died from and it wasn't until I actually got to that point of life or death with my addiction, that I actually went on to a trauma informed rehab and got the help that I needed."
Listen to Aunee's story below as she speaks to our senior Hits Radio reporter, Karen Liu:
Aunee added: "We always presume that sexual abuse or any sort of crime of that nature strangers are perpetrators when actually 95 percent of cases it's a family member or a family friend, so it's almost like that stranger danger goes out the window and it's about having those conversations and raising that awareness around who is around your children.
"I've continued to blog my journey and the amount of people that have reached out to me is unbelievable. People that I actually know feel comfortable to say 'I've been through what you've been through' and it's almost like by me opening up, by allowing myself to be vulnerable, I open that door for other people to also open the door and allow themselves to be vulnerable in a very sort of safe space because I've been through it.
"The power of sharing your story is amazing when you just own it. Like now I just own it. There's nothing I can do, I can't ever go back and change it but I can use it to help other people now, to show them that they're not alone and that there are other people that have been through what you've been through and there's life afterwards. It can be a beautiful and very empowering life."