Why this exists
Most survivors never report. The system is built as if they did.
Reporting to police is a one-way door: it starts a process you don't control, it may put the person you name on notice, and in most cases it goes nowhere. So most people don't. The Register is built for the survivor the system currently never meets — the one who would come forward if they knew they weren't the only one.
Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. For men, 1 in 16.
ABS, Personal Safety Survey 2021–22of sexual assaults reported to NSW Police result in no legal action at all. Only 7% end in a guilty outcome.
BOCSAR, attrition of sexual assault, 2018 cohort (May 2024)Australian services today that connect survivors who name the same person. NSW's online reporting option records, but does not investigate or match.
Violet Co research, September 2026The idea has a name, and it works
Legal scholars call it an information escrow: a trusted holder keeps a sensitive account and acts on it only when a pre-agreed condition is met — usually a second, independent account naming the same person. It solves the first-mover problem. Alone, a survivor carries all the risk of speaking first. A match removes that.
Two services already run on it. Callisto, in the United States, has matched survivors on university campuses since 2018; roughly one in forty who opt in find that someone else has named the same person. Tika, in Aotearoa New Zealand, is a legal charity founded by a barrister and a journalist that connects survivors and represents them together, free — it launches nationwide on 24 September 2026. Australia has nothing like either. The Register would be the first, built by the country's dedicated sexual assault legal practice, learning from both.
Who we are
Violet Co Legal & Consulting
Founded in 2019 by Karen Iles — a Dharug woman, a solicitor and a survivor — Violet Co is Australia's dedicated Sexual Assault Legal Practice: survivor-led, 100% Indigenous-owned, and the only private legal practice in the country certified as a social enterprise. Around half of our practice is free or pro bono representation for survivors whose matters other services call too complex.
We don't just represent. Karen sat on the Expert Advisory Group of the Australian Law Reform Commission's 2025 inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, and leads the Make Police Investigate campaign for a legal duty of care on police. What we learn from clients drives what we ask of the system.