Gabrielle Goliath

“For as long as I can remember my life was always happy, I was a brave, confident go-getter. I never really fully understood what trauma was at its core until January 2013, the evening before my birthday. I couldn’t have kids and my friend was pregnant with her first child, so naturally I was over-the-moon to meet this little man.

On the 26th of January 2013 my friend went into labour, and out of excitement I got into my car and headed towards the hospital. Truth be told I never knew where it was, however I thought I could stop and ask for directions on the way. This turned out to be a grave mistake. When I stopped and asked for directions I was held up by four guys, each with a gun pointed at me. An evening that was supposed to be full of joy and happiness turned out to be a horrifying nightmare. For four hours and what felt like a lifetime I was brutally gang raped by these men.

I think the most disturbing part of the entire evening was the fact that they would phone my Dad and make him listen to what they were doing to me. The police informed my Mum that I had a 2% chance of surviving this and they were told to say their prayers as this was no longer a rescue mission, but it was a body retrieval mission.

Because my car was second-hand I didn’t think it had a vehicle-tracking device in it, but to my surprise it did. My brother got hold of someone on Facebook who then phoned the CEO of ‘Tracker’ who without hesitation switched on the tracking unit. This is how they eventually found me.

After they were done raping me, the rapists drugged me, tied me up with my own tow rope and locked me in the boot of the car and told me to sleep while they went to fetch petrol. They then proceeded to set the grass around the vehicle on fire. After a few minutes I started to try and loosen my restraints, when I heard someone calling my name.

By the grace of God, I was found and pulled out of the vehicle five minutes before my birthday. After that night, I became a shell of the person I used to be, I was too petrified to even leave my house, or climb into a vehicle. I was terrified of life itself. I fell into a deep-seated depression which took me many years to get out of. Without the amazing support of my family and friends I would never be where I am today. I have risen above and today I am unstoppable. I have a new vehicle, I have my own business and I’m growing from strength to strength everyday. I drive by myself to go to the shops and I’m loving life again.

People don’t understand the trauma of rape. I have people say to me it’s been five years, get over it! To me it feels like yesterday. I can remember every single minute of the ordeal as if it happened yesterday. Time doesn’t make you forget, it only makes it easier to deal with. If I can say one thing that I’ve learnt over the past four years, it is that there is always hope and there is always somebody who has your back and that things do get better.

I didn’t know how strong I was, until being strong was my only choice.”