Emergency warnings are in place for fires burning near Tenterfield and Tabulam, NSW; Stanthorpe, NSW; and south of Bundaberg, QLD.For most of Shanelle Dawson's childhood, she grew up without her mother's loving guidance, living in a home run by her father, Chris Dawson.
But now, after 40 years of deception, a protracted police investigation and a very public trial, Shanelle's father is serving aShanelle spoke to Sarah Kanowski on ABC Conversations about the years of grief, confusion and trauma she has felt as she's processed the betrayal of losing her mum at the hands of her own father.
As time went on, he suggested she had joined a religious cult or had moved to New Zealand or the Central Coast of NSW."He mostly said to me, in more recent years, 'I don't know what happened to your mum,'" she says.Shanelle grew up being told her mum had chosen not to be present in her life.Shanelle says there were no photos of her mum in the house growing up, and her father, a teacher, didn't share his memories of her.
"I would hold it together and play the game of ... happy families, and then fall apart when I would leave," she says. "I was constantly weighing up how I would do it and how it would be gentlest for everyone else, as well as myself," she says.Shanelle says she is grateful to her mum's family for allowing her to come to the realisation about her dad herself.
"A lot of people feel very strongly about my father being a monster and that still hurts — even though I understand where they're coming from," she says." see my dad taken off in handcuffs was really heartbreaking, too," she says.
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