FORMER NSW Governor Marie Bashir will speak at the launch of Newcastle psychologist Marija Radojevic’s book, Anthony’s Story, about her son’s sexual abuse at a Sydney school and death in 2014.
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Anthony Radojevic was 15 or 16 when his parents, Marija and Alex, first noticed their lively, intelligent and happy son changed until the night nearly two years later that he broke down, sobbed and said he was severely depressed.
His grades slipped, he “moped around”, became surly and “I watched my son gradually start to pull away from family life”, Mrs Radojevic said.
In Anthony’s Story she charts the steep decline that occurred after her son revealed at age 18 that he had had sex with two men, including one associated with the school.
With brutal honesty Mrs Radojevic recounts how years of working as a psychologist was no protection in a family struggling to cope where an authority figure was alleged to have abused his power against a sensitive and vulnerable teenager coming to terms with his sexuality.
Anthony Radojevic was a promising actor whose life became “a downhill slide into alcoholism, lying, cheating, prostitution and self harm”. It was compounded by his epilepsy.
“Alex and I felt as if we were living a double life. One part was given over to trauma and crisis management with Anthony. The other part was the part of our lives which kept us grounded and sane,” Mrs Radojevic said.
It was not until 2008, when he was in his early 30s, that Anthony wrote a letter to his mother saying he had been “sexually abused” and it was “a major factor in what has gone wrong since I left school”.
He died in 2014, aged 38, after falling down stairs while having an epileptic seizure.
Mrs Radojevic gave evidence at the final Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing into the nature, cause and impact of abuse.
She told the commission she and her husband believed the school was “a cocoon, like our home”.
“This, I believe, is true entrapment. We didn't want to rock the boat too much, with the Higher School Certificate being so soon. Our attempt to discuss this with our son met with calculated silence,” Mrs Radojevic said.
“We are now left to deal not only with our endless feelings of loss and trauma but also with the deep guilt about our naive ignorance.”
In a testimonial Professor Bashir said the book was “a deeply moving account by a caring and sensitive parent of the journey of a dearly-loved, but vulnerable son towards his untimely death”.
Her book will be launched at Gleebooks at Glebe on Sunday.
