Matt Anckner was 4 years old when he told his mother that his step-brother had routinely sexually abused him over two years.
His mother, Tammy, believed him, said Anckner, now 17.
Had she not, he said, “I may have turned to drugs and alcohol rather than speak out.”
Anckner spoke at the announcement by Denver officials of a new public awareness campaign to ease difficulty sexual assault victims face called “Start by Believing.”
A friend or family member is typically the first person a victim of sexual assault confides in after the attack, Mayor Michael Hancock said. “A negative response can worsen the trauma,” and deter victims from reporting the incident, he said.
Sexual assault often goes unreported because victims don’t think they will be believed, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
“We need that report so we can start that investigation,” Morrissey said.
The campaign will help victims on their “long, hard road to recovery,” Morrissey said.
Tammy Anckner, 52, said she was doing laundry when she heard her son whisper “stop doing that, Tommy.” When she went to investigate she found Matt’s step-brother, who was 15, holding the child up against a refrigerator and rubbing himself against the boy.
He had warned Matt that if he told anyone about what he had been doing to him, “I would be in jail,” Matt said.
But that didn’t stop Matt from telling his mother about the abuse he’d been suffering.
“It changed my whole reality.”
Investigators found that the boy had victimized 36 children, Tammy said.
Matt’s step brother, now 27, received a 12- year sentence, and is due to be released in May of 2017, she said.
A training video on how to respond to someone reporting a sexual assault has already been distributed to the police and fire department personnel, said Daelene Mix, a spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Public Safety
“We are in the process of coordinating the training with the Denver Sheriff Department and Denver Health,” Mix said.
The campaign will be rolled out over three months.
The campaign will include three billboards, signs on 50 bus shelters throughout the metro area and bumper stickers, and other signs on Yellow taxi cabs.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or
Updated on March 18, 2015 at 4:46 p.m.: This story has been updated to correct Matt Anckner’s age. Anckner is 17.
