‘It really destroyed my life’

Catherine Jane Fisher at a press conference in Japan. Source: Supplied

ON APRIL 6, 2002, after being drugged in a bar in Yokosuka, Japan, Catherine Jane Fisher was raped by a US Military serviceman.

She was dragged to his van, assaulted and then forced to drive her attacker back to his military base.

"It really destroyed my life," she tells news.com.au.

"There was the rape. I developed PTSD. It was a torment to even go to the bathroom and take my underwear off. But it was everything that happened after that, too," she says.

Ms Fisher, a mother of three born in Australia, is alluding to the subsequent twelve-year fight for justice she endured to see her rapist, Bloke Deans, convicted. Her battle spanned three continents, seven different court cases, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. But it all started in a Japanese police station.

"Being from Australia we know that the police are there to take care of us, and I thought as soon as I was raped that if I went to the police they were going to take care of me in the same way. But instead they treated me terribly, like I was a criminal. In Australian schools we are educated from a small age that we have to report crimes so they can preserve evidence. So I thought ok, they are going to need DNA. But the police were not even interested in DNA samples, in going to the hospital, they didn't take care of crucial evidence. I was desperate to go to the bathroom but held on for hours to try and preserve DNA that way, but they weren't interested. I had no underwear on, they didn't even care."

Catherine Jane showing the $1 she was awarded. Source: Supplied

Instead, Ms Fisher was held by the Kanagawa police force, who subjected her to 12 hours of questioning without food or drink. Horrifically, they allowed her to 'interview' Deans who, in English, admitted to the assault. Deans was released before Ms Fisher had even been examined

by medical professionals.

"I started to think about other Japanese women who might have gone through the same thing," she explains. "I know that the Australian police, my father, they would have protected me, but this didn't happen in Australia. Initially I thought I was the only rape victim of military personnel, but I found it has been happening since the 1940s. Some 200,000 crimes have been committed by US Military in Japan since then. Rapes, murders, hit and runs...the Prime Minister of Japan hasn't said or done anything about it, so I decided to."

In 2004 Ms Fisher took Deans to Tokyo District Court, and although he pleaded not guilty, she won the case. She was awarded 3 million Yen (AUD $30,000) in compensation - the only problem was, Deans was nowhere to be found.

Catherine Jane with a poster showing a number of signatures from supporters. Source: Supplied

Catherine Jane with her lawyer Christopher Hanewicz. Source: Supplied

"The rapist had fled the country," says Ms Fisher. "I just remember thinking, how could they let him get away with it? I felt it was a set up. The Japanese government said they couldn't find him, the US Military, they had relocated him. That was that. To this day, I haven't seen that money."

Never one to give up, Ms Fisher took matters into her own hands, embarking on a 10 year hunt to find Deans.

"He was arrested in the US for neglect of his children, that's how I found him," she says.

"I went straight to the Japanese government and told them I'd found him, I gave them the court rulings proving it, and they said to me, 'We can't afford to do this.'

"So, I found an attorney in the US, and they took the case. It was the first time a rape case had been taken from one country to another. Going to court the last time meant I was going to be in debt. I knew that, but I knew it was going to be ok. It cost my attorneys $200,000 to take my case, and they did it pro bono.

"I just wanted to win the case for the next person. And I did, I won the case. We had to put a monetary figure on it but by that stage I didn't want money, I just wanted justice. So we decided upon $1. I settled on $1 because I believe in the Power of One."

Catherine Jane showing rape test kits at a conference. Source: Supplied

That was in November 2013, and winning meant that ruling from Ms Fisher's civil case in 2004, which had found Deans liable for sexual assault in 2002, was upheld. What's more, Deans submitted a statement confirming that after the civil case, he was told to leave Japan by the US Military. Ms Fisher's case was also the first time that a foreign ruling concerning a rape had been upheld in a US Court.

"I'm now a volunteer advocate for WARriors Japan (Women Against Rape), and I'm trying to set up 24-hour Rape Crisis centres, Japan has none," Ms Fisher says.

"I am just really focusing on getting my life back, but the fact still remains that the American military obstructed my justice. They tampered with my case. They sent the rapist out of the country and they never expected that an Australian woman would say, 'I know I'm right 100 per cent and I won't let you get away for it.'

"I want everyone to see that this is the truth, that this is what went on. The US Military claims zero tolerance to rape but the stories I've heard from around the world since I've started talking contradict this. Just this week, a US Army General working in Japan was retired because he failed to properly investigate a sexual assault accusation – but he still gets to keep his pension. But I deserved the justice. I did it for all the women who have been raped by US military personnel, and all the women that will be."

You can read more about Ms Fisher's ordeal in her newly-released book,I Am Catherine Jane: The True Story of One Woman's Quest for Justice.

Catherine Jane's book is out now. Source: Supplied

Catherine Jane on a trip to Japan for one of the press conferences. Source: Supplied

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