True crime: Daughter breaks free of father’s control

Content warning: This article contains information about child sexual abuse and suicide ideation. Reader discretion is advised.

A horrifying case

In her 30 years as a sexual offences investigator, Detective Leading Senior Constable Kathy Squire has seen her share of horrific cases.

But she had never come across anything quite like the trauma experienced by Beck Rogers.

“It was in April 2023 when the case came across my desk,” Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said.

“My sergeant said to me ‘I’ve got a new job for you and it’s a big one’ so I opened it up and started reading the notes and just went ‘Oh my god, this poor woman’.”

What Det Ldg Sen Const Squire was reading were notes from a preliminary police interview the week before - Beck’s account of 36 years of sexual abuse, emotional control and financial coercion.

The offender? Her father.

Beck was just three years old when her father first touched her indecently.

She was in her late 30s when his coercive control and abuse finally stopped.

The road to reporting

Beck had kept the abuse she suffered hidden her whole life.

The first person she ever revealed the abuse to was her sister-in-law in early 2023.

“I’d actually got to a point where I didn’t see any way out of my situation, so I was planning to kill myself at my father’s house,” Beck said.

“Then, one night, I was out with my sister-in-law and we were in the car – she was driving – and she just asked me ‘Is your dad abusing you?’

“And I just said ‘yes’ and broke down while she pulled over and just hugged me.”

Just weeks prior, at a family dinner, her father had asked Beck and her husband, Will, if they could take out a mortgage on his home as he was struggling with his payments.

Of all the abuse she’d been subjected to in her life, this request was the final straw.

“I realised it wasn’t just me his control was impacting anymore; he was trying to involve my husband and my son," Beck said.

"That was when I went ‘No, this has to stop’.”

In the weeks that followed, Beck’s determination to end her father’s control led to her suicidal ideations but the unexpected question from her sister-in-law changed everything.

Taking back control

She said her sister-in-law had noticed something “weird” about the way she and her father interacted.

“Her being so understanding was what gave me the courage to tell Will,” Beck said.

“I was planning in my head the best way to tell him when one night I just walked into his office at home and blurted it out.”

Upon hearing Beck’s revelation, Will walked outside and “smoked about 10 cigarettes in a row”.

While he was outside, nearly every possibility of what Will would say ran through Beck’s head.

But what he ended up saying wasn’t what she expected.

“He came in, very calm, and said he’d been looking on Google and that I shouldn’t just go to a police station but that I needed to go to a SOCIT office,” she said.

“I’d never even heard of a SOCIT before but Will’s first thought had been to figure out the best way for me to report my father.”

A few days later, sitting in a car with her husband and sister-in-law, Beck rang the Frankston SOCIT office.

The member on the phone asked her if she could come straight into the office to make an official report and take part in a preliminary interview.

Building a case

After reading through the preliminary interview, Det Ldg Sen Const Squire contacted Beck and organised for her to come back to the office to start preparing an official statement.

During this meeting, a bond was formed between the pair.

“I’ve been doing this job for a long time – more than 30 years in the sexual offences space – and I’m not always everyone’s cup of tea and that’s OK,” Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said.

“I’m there to be a detective, not the best friend.

"But with Beck, from the first time we met, there was an instant connection.

“She was completely open with me about everything, which is exactly what an investigator wants; someone who doesn’t hold back and is prepared for the long journey ahead.

“I said to Beck from day one ‘This is a long process and you’re going to have to be prepared that you’re going to be stuck with me for probably quite some time, sorry about that’ and she never once faltered in her commitment to seeing this case through.”

For Beck, Det Ldg Sen Const Squire’s direct approach was exactly what she needed to navigate the journey of her case.

“Kathy was nothing short of amazing,” Beck said.

“From the first time we met, and we started getting my statement together, I felt listened to, understood and believed.”

That belief was the most important part.

“The hardest thing for me was my father had told me the whole time ‘No one will believe you and it's all your fault’,” she said.

“That was the hardest hurdle for me to get past. I kept thinking ‘I'm going to go there and they're not gonna believe me or they’ll think badly of me’.

“But Kathy made me feel so comfortable straight away.

"I knew she believed me and I felt that she cared.”

This bond continued to develop as Beck’s statement was prepared during four meetings over two weeks.

Unpacking years of trauma

“During all our meetings I was watching her as she was telling me everything and I could see the cogs ticking over and her mind flicking back there,” Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said.

“And the detail that she gave was amazing. You just knew it all was true and raw, and honest.”

While Beck suffered prolonged abuse over more than three decades, the case was a much quicker process – about two years in total from Beck’s initial report to him being sentenced.

After putting Beck’s statement together, Kathy worked to get things rolling to bring charges against the father.

She obtained a warrant to search the father’s house in July 2023.

“Among other things, we seized his computer and found sexualised images of a young Beck on there,” she said.

“We arrested him that day and charged him with 60 offences, all of which he initially denied.”

With her father bailed after his arrest, Beck feared what he might do, so Det Ldg Sen Const Squire filed a restraining order for Beck’s protection.

Preparing for court

For the next 10 months, Beck worked with Det Ldg Sen Const Squire and prosecutors in preparation for the court process.

But the day before the committal hearing, the Office of Public Prosecutions called to tell Beck that her father had agreed to plead guilty to 30 charges.

In the end, the only time she faced her father in a courtroom was to deliver her victim impact statement at sentencing – a statement that Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said played a big part in the result.

“When it's these historical cases, mostly all you've got to go on is the statement of the complainant,” she said.

“Beck's statement was the most powerful thing I've ever experienced or witnessed.

“There wasn't a dry eye in the court including the judge herself, she was wiping away tears.

“For the judge to experience something like that and to watch the judge react to Beck’s words, that was pretty powerful to see.”

On 19 February 2025, Beck’s father was sentenced to 21 years and five months in prison, with a non-parole period of 14 years and eight months.

“You don't see these sentences handed out very often. Even our barrister was gobsmacked, he was absolutely blown away,” Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said.

“It doesn’t magically fix everything for Beck but it’s legal confirmation for her saying ‘We believe you, this happened to you and it’s not OK’.”

Breaking the cycle

What became evident to the experienced detective during this case was the high level of grooming that Beck had been subjected to.

“Beck and I have been quite open about ‘Why did you let it go on so long? Why did you not just say no? Why did you not walk away?’ but he had such a hold over her mentally,” Det Ldg Sen Const Squire said.

“When you listen to her talk about her father and recount growing up and what he did to her, you can see how well he had groomed her from the very beginning.

“It’s bloody hard to break that condition and that cycle and I’m blown away by how Beck has been able to navigate the process from reporting to going through the whole court process – she’s a phenomenal woman.”

For Beck, the whole experience has taken a toll on her mentally and physically.

She has suffered from seizures her whole adult life, at first being treated for epilepsy before being diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder, a trauma-related condition.

The severity of these seizures, and the night terrors she also suffers, increased during the case.

However, Beck insists taking those steps through the front doors of the SOCIT office was the best thing she’s done.

“I hate to think what would have happened if I didn’t make a report,” she said.

“From the two officers who took my initial report, to Kathy and everyone involved in the court process, I’ve felt nothing but supported the whole way.”

Sharing her story

Beck decided to share her story publicly to show other people in similar situations that help is out there.

“I just want to help other people. I often think if I had known about the stories of other people in similar situations, I would have come forward much earlier,” she said.

“If I’d read a story like mine years ago, maybe I would have reported my father earlier,” she said.

“People need to know that help is out there and that there are amazing police like Kathy who will listen and believe you and help you.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have had Kathy in my corner helping me navigate this difficult battle and I want to help other people get to where I am.”

For Kathy, Beck’s case is one that stands out in her career.

“You come across a case like this maybe every 10 years, and it’s one you don’t want to come across because you wouldn’t wish this upon anyone,” she said.

“But it’s a case I will look back on at the end of my career and be really proud of because of the result we were able to get for Beck.”

Need support?

For more information about SOCITs, visit Sexual offences and child abuse support teams and centres.

It's never too late to report a sexual offence. For more information, visit Report a sexual offence, sexual assault, or sex crime.

If anything in this story has had an impact on you, contact Lifeline via their website or phone 13 11 14. If life is in danger, call Triple Zero (000).

Editorial and photography Danielle Ford

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