Ex-partner of disgraced author Craig Silvey speaks of 'great betrayal'

The ex-partner of disgraced novelist Craig Silvey has spoken of suffering a "betrayal" and how she and their three young children are "secondary victims" of his crimes.Writer Clare Testoni, who separated from Silvey after 13 years in the wake of his arrest on child exploitation charges, posted a statement online on yesterday evening, telling of "the hardest year of my life" since his arrest in January this year.Silvey was jailed this week for seven months for possessing and distributing graphic images and videos of child exploitationIn sentencing him, Judge Hayley Cormann said the material he possessed and his communications about it were "repulsive" and "degrading".Ms Testoni's statement detailed her increasing distance from Silvey over the past six years, and their eventual estrangement when she learned of his crimes. She described what Silvey did as a "great betrayal"."The father of my children and my partner of 13 years revealed himself not to be the man I thought he was," Ms Testoni wrote."While I was aware he was stressed and his mental health was suffering I had no idea what was truly going on. "I had seven month old twins, a three year old, I had been drowning in motherhood and in his growing absence."Ms Testoni expressed her sorrow for those whose abuse was depicted in the material Silvey shared. Craig Silvey arrives at court for his sentencing on Monday. (ABC News: Cason Ho)"I’m especially sorry for the victims," she wrote."All children deserve to be safe and loved. That is what I hope to provide for my girls."'Secondary victims'Her statement came days after Silvey posted his own 9,000-word essay online in which he tried to explain what led to his offending, outlining his own sexual abuse as a child and his anguished mental state.Ms Testoni, who is understood to have moved from Fremantle to New South Wales after separating from Silvey, said this year had been the hardest of her life."With little children and no employment, this betrayal came at the time in my life when I was most financially and socially vulnerable," she wrote."It is hard to rebuild friendships after escaping a toxic relationship when you are the sole parent to three under four. "It is harder still while being followed by the Daily Mail on your way to Centrelink.""We separated as soon [as I] learned of his crimes but he remains the father of our children. "Reconciling how he will be in their lives is an ongoing project that I don’t think anyone else can understand until it happens to them."We are secondary victims in this. We have suffered greatly."Silvey 'a shadow'Ms Testoni said she had become increasingly estranged from Silvey as his writing career blossomed. "Craig has already been a shadow that occluded me at times in my career," she wrote."He supported many of my endeavours with enthusiasm but in the last six years he had stopped reading my work when I shared it with him, discouraged me from continuing my PhD when we had our first child, and generally prioritised his own more lucrative career over mine. "This is an old story badly re-told again and again."I hope to tell a new story going forward."