Madeleine West breaks her silence: Neighbors stars emotional 60 minutes with Tara Brown after the ‘monster’ who abused her as a child is finally brought to justice
Madeleine West has broken her silence about the child molester who repeatedly assaulted her in a tell-all interview with 60 Minutes.
The former Neighbors star turned podcaster was seen filming segments with a crew along Tallow Beach in Byron Bay on Wednesday.
Daily Mail Australia witnessed reporter Tara Brown arrive at West’s multi-million dollar home in Suffolk Park, 5km south of Byron, after midday.
The mother-of-six, known for her roles in Neighbors, Underbelly and House Husbands, won a lawsuit against her abuser in September after seeking “justice against the monster who destroyed my life.”
The 44-year-old posted on Instagram alongside a childhood photo: ‘You had a big win today, little one. For you and everyone like you, who suffers in silence. Served a life sentence for guilt and shame you didn’t deserve.
Madeleine West was seen filming segments along Tallow Beach in Byron Bay for 60 minutes on Wednesday. She was interviewed for the program about surviving child sexual abuse
The former Neighbors star turned podcaster was repeatedly assaulted as a child and the person who abused her was only recently brought to justice
West filmed B-roll footage that will be used in an upcoming episode of 60 Minutes
“It was NEVER your fault. I never knew one word could have such healing power… “GUILTY”, guilty guilty guilty guilty.
“Now go dance in the sun, little one. You are Safe. You are free.’
West grew up as Melanie Ann Weston in the town of Woodend, northwest of Melbourne in the Macedon Ranges, and began acting at an early age.
In January this year she revealed that she was sexually abused between the ages of five and ten. Her abuser has never been named.
“Part of the reason I started acting was to wear someone else’s skin, to hide what was really happening in my life,” she said.
She laughed and chatted with the cameraman and soundman between takes
Daily Mail Australia witnessed reporter Tara Brown (right) arrive at West’s multi-million dollar home in Suffolk Park, 5km south of Byron, after midday
West was seen talking to a 60 Minutes producer as they walked down the street
The somber exterior footage will likely accompany her sit-down interview with Tara Brown
In her Instagram posts in September, West wrote a cryptic clue about the difficult road to reporting her abuser to the police.
She described “caregivers who are too confrontational to hear a child’s pain, too afraid of the consequences of taking action.”
She said it’s up to the “victims and survivors” to “engage in these big, uncomfortable conversations, remove the stigma and show that justice is possible.”
She recently announced that she has been appointed to the Board of Advisors of Crime Stoppers International, which specializes in combating child exploitation.
It’s been a tumultuous few years for West after she split from her long-term partner, MasterChef star Shannon Bennett, in 2018.
West (pictured as a child) was abused by a “monster living in the same town” when she was between five and ten years old
After her abuser was found guilty earlier this year, West posted an emotional message to her younger self on Instagram, writing: “Dance in the sun, little one. You are Safe. You are free’
The couple split after 13 years and six children together, with West saying the divorce process “became love toxic.”
Two years after their breakup, West left Melbourne and moved to the Byron Bay area to be near their six children, where she bought her own $4.6 million estate overlooking Tallow Beach.
West was embroiled in legal proceedings this year with Benny Bennett, Shannon’s elderly father, who took out an AVO against her following an alleged clash at the chef’s Byron mansion in 2022.
Enforcing the AVO, a magistrate described West as an ‘evasive’ and unreliable witness, and her alleged treatment of her ex-father-in-law, 75, as ‘verging on aggressive’.
But the decision was overturned when West appealed to the NSW District Court and won in a ruling by Judge Jonathan Priestley, who said “the evidence of the facts supporting them is light and not supported by” the footage of five different CCTV cameras around Shannon. Bennett’s house.
It’s been a tumultuous few years for West after she split from her long-term partner, MasterChef star Shannon Bennett, in 2018. (They are pictured together in March 2016)