Introduction

In this chapter, Dr Langley introduces herself and the life she led prior to being placed in witness protection. Dr Langley describes her experiences as a medical doctor, psychiatrist and psychologist, working with the Australian government in various locations around the world. Dr Langley directed her own private practice for over 20 years, where she became successful and eventually became a prominent spokesperson and advocate for victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence and people with mental illness. Dr Langley juggled raising her children on her own, completing her postgraduate studies and working several part-time jobs in order to make ends meet whilst at the same time building her private practice in the suburbs of Australia. Dr Langley writes of her experiences of childhood sexual abuse by her parents and later by clergymen of the Roman Catholic church, and how this profoundly impacted upon her intimate relationships in her adult life, leading her to become a single mother at a young age. Dr Langley gives the reader a brief introduction to her parents – her father was a hot-tempered, abusive, narcissistic engineer and her mother, a manipulative, conniving, hypocrite housewife who attended church twice a day and encouraged priests to abuse her daughter in the hopes of attaining a higher place in heaven.