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A woman tracked down and raped by the son she adopted out as a child has successfully fought to have him named in public as a deterrent to him taking revenge on her.

Erin Wills, 44, has taken the unusual step of forgoing her name suppression as a victim of a sex crime so that her biological son, Adam Charles Pollard, can be named.

Pollard was convicted after he tracked down Wills on Mother’s Day 2010 and entered into an abusive sexual relationship with her which ended with him being convicted last year of incest and rape.

“I have released my name because I don’t own Adam’s crimes so why should I carry the same that belongs to him any longer,” Wills told the Sunday Star-Times.

Wills said she hoped having Pollard’s name made public would help stop him offending again.

“He needs to be accountable and I hope it will be a deterrent from future revenge on me. Physically I have healed, but the fear of him and the memories of his abuse remain.”

Pollard’s lawyers fought his name being released, and took an appeal to the High Court after they were unsuccessful in the District Court.

They argued that identifying him would be distressing for his adopted family and they emphasised the unique circumstances of a son offending against his mother.

The District Court judge ruled these factors did not justify suppression and the High Court confirmed the ruling. Wills earlier told the Star-Times her son used guilt over the adoption to move in with her.

He hit her within three weeks of moving in and the first sexual assaults occurred soon after.

She said he had videotaped the assault and threatened to release the recording.

But the assaults continued and the relationship ended only when Wills went to work one day and “my face was so black and blue from the hiding I had received from Adam that a colleague rang the police and the police came and got me from my workplace”.

The son was arrested that day and charged with assaults, rape and incest. The jury found Pollard guilty of one representative count of rape and several counts of incest.

The trial was traumatic and Wills frequently broke down in the witness box, but she said: “I am a survivor and do encourage other victims to put their trust in the police and our justice system as I did.”

 

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