Actress Madeleine West has detailed how she bravely confronted her paedophile neighbour more than 30 years after his sickening sexual abuse sent her into the ‘deepest, darkest hole’ of depression and self-loathing.
Peter Vincent White, now aged in his seventies, received a 15-year sentence for his cruel abuse of seven young victims aged between four and 14.
His life came crashing down when the star of Neighbours, Underbelly and House Husbands came knocking at his door in July 2022 while wearing a secret recording device.
The recording was crucial in prosecuting White, and was shared publicly for the first time in a 60 Minutes episode that aired on Sunday night.
In the audio, West could be heard exchanging pleasantries with White and his wife, who is profoundly deaf, before confronting him about the abuse.
She was left shocked when White said he could not remember committing any of the crimes – only to then beg her for forgiveness with four damning words: ‘I’m very, very sorry.’
Neighbours star Madeleine West has revealed how she landed her childhood neighbour Peter Vincent White behind bars more than 30 years after he sexually abused her and six others
Peter Vincent White (pictured) was a married father-of-two when he abused West and six other children in his home in Woodend, 70km north-west of Melbourne, between 1977 and 1988
‘I don’t understand,’ he was heard saying in the recording.
‘I’m not quite sure what you’re asking me. I am so sorry. I don’t remember doing anything like that. I am sorry. Please, please forgive me.
‘If… if I did, I… I don’t remember. I’m very, very sorry if I did… it’s been washed from my mind.’
READ MORE: Evil paedophile mum and stepdad are jailed for years-long sexual abuse of her daughter – and a sickening doctor’s request brought them down
The South n woman was found to have allowed her partner, the child’s stepfather, to abuse the girl between the ages of 12 to 16 before becoming involved in the abuse herself
At one point, West could be heard telling her abuser his apology ‘meant a lot’.
However, in reality the actress said she wanted to ‘claw his eyes out’ when he asked to be forgiven for his crimes.
‘At the time, you’re in acting mode and you go, ‘Of course,” West said.
‘What else am I going to say? Punch him in the face? Kick his teeth in? I felt like doing that. I wanted to claw his eyes out.
‘Forgive? Give you words to make you feel better so you can go back to your life, and your happy, healthy family and your international travel.
‘Meanwhile, I’m in the deepest, darkest hole I’ve ever been in my life – and you want forgiveness?’
She will never forget seeing the look on White’s face when she knocked on his door.
‘The door opened. And in that moment, I had my ‘gotcha’ moment because his face dropped,’ West recalled.
‘I knew he was waiting. He’d been waiting for this day for 30 or 40 years.’
West was abused by the married father-of-two between the ages of four and 10 in his home in Woodend, 70km north-west of Melbourne.
She said the popular plumber’s home was a ‘magnet for children’ and he used his swimming pool, sandpit and VHS player to lure them inside.
He abused seven children aged between four and 14 in the front room of his home and in a caravan parked on the driveway between 1977 and 1988.
The sexual acts White subjected the children to are too revolting to publish.
West endured the most serious and sustained abuse of all, admitting she did not know how many times White had raped her because it had ‘all blurred’.
She required surgery after one incident left her with serious physical injuries.
‘My little body had been totally violated,’ she said.
West, whose childhood name was Melanie Ann Weston, shared the abuse with her parents who she said ‘didn’t know what to do’.
West, whose childhood name was Melanie Ann Weston, was abused by the married father-of-two between the ages of four and 10 in his home in Woodend, 70km north-west of Melbourne
Town plumber Peter White – who lured children with lollies and games and then molested them – has now been jailed for his crimes of four decades ago
‘No one was there to stand up for me when I was a child,’ she said.
‘And here I had an opportunity to stand up for myself in a really meaningful way now. And I was terrified, terrified.’
She went to the police in 2017 – decades after the abuse had occurred. Her childhood friend Amanda Lee separately contacted police two years later.
Their testimonies helped police build a case against the paedophile, whose ‘brazen’ offending shocked even the most hardened sex crime officers.
‘It was just abhorrent, disgusting, horrific, calculated, intentional offending,’ investigator Scott Tuddenham told 60 Minutes.
‘There were some factors you don’t come across too often. I was really intrigued to find out what else was there.’
At a Victoria County Court plea hearing last year, West demanded White look her in the eyes while she read out her victim statement.
She later said on Instagram that ‘he wept, looked away… Time and again I demanded he meet my gaze.
‘For the first time in his miserable life show a shred of integrity by looking at me and listening.
‘His legacy will not be as the good bloke, the loving husband, the proud father and grandfather.
‘No… the world will remember him as the monster who molested little children. It stops now.’
West told the program: ‘The moment of delivering that statement was so powerful, because I got to say every word I ever wanted to say to him.’
‘You ruined my life and now I’m handing that back to you. You take it back to that prison cell and may you rot.’
West agreed to wear a recording device when she confronted White at his home in 2022. The recording proved vital to prosecuting the former plumber, who is now behind bars
White pleaded guilty to 33 charges of child sexual abuse against the seven victims including sexual penetration of a child aged under 10 and gross indecency.
He was sentenced last December to 15 years in prison, but will be eligible for release on parole in nine years, by which time he will be 82 years old.
After the sentencing, Madeleine celebrated with other victims, saying the ruling ‘took 40 years to be delivered but now it’s here’.
‘It’s just a pittance compared to the life sentence served by victims of childhood sexual assault, but [it] demonstrates that victim survivors are not alone, it was never our fault, we aren’t broken and that justice is possible,’ she said.
‘This is a crime against children. Of the worst possible kind.
‘By continuing to pretend it doesn’t happen we willfully endanger our kids, just as we were left in danger like so many generations before us.
‘Ignorance is no longer an excuse.’
West hopes that opening up about the torrid abuse she suffered from White will allow her to get on with her life.
‘He can burn in hell for all I care- he’s in the right place,’ she said.
I don’t want anything from him. I don’t despise him. I don’t wish him ill. I just wish it had never happened.’
On Saturday, West admitted she was equal parts anxious and relieved that her harrowing story was about to be aired on national television.
She said by sharing her story she was finally being relieved of a 40-year burden.
‘Some might say I’m airing dirty laundry, but I know there are so many others out there who also feel dirty, broken, to blame,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘I want you to know it was never your fault. You are not alone. You have every right to reclaim your history.
‘And the more we speak out, the louder our voices, the more we talk about it across dinner tables, in schools, at work, and shout it from the rooftops, the less places there are for these bastards to hide.’
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028