Teenager gathers evidence to prove he was sexually assaulted after police didn’t believe her

Taylor Cadle turned to police for help when her great uncle and adoptive father, Henry Cadle of Lakeland, Florida, sexually abused her. Instead of being handcuffed, Cadle, then 13, was charged with lying to authorities.

“What did I do to make you punish me?” Cadle, now an adult, asks PBS NewsHour episode aired Tuesday, October 29.

Special details about what the journalist Rachel de Leon found during the making of the Emmy Award winnerCenter for Investigative Journalism and Netflix documentary Victim/suspect: That hundreds of alleged victims across the country who report sexual assault often end up being arrested themselves for lying to authorities.

Cadle was adopted by Henry and his wife after she spent a year and a half in foster care, de Leon said. According to de Leon, she stopped living with her mother when she was 7 years old.

Scared and unsure of what to do, Cadle heeded her adoptive mother’s advice to plead guilty “and get it over with,” she told De Leon.

After pleading guilty to providing false information to a law enforcement officer, she was sentenced to probation, court documents show. Ledger reported.

Florida State Senator Lauren Bookwho has worked to advocate for victims of child abuse for more than 20 years, is concerned that Cadle did not have anyone who could help her through her ordeal.

“Where was the man for Taylor?” – says the Book in the special issue.

Determined to prove Henry had abused her, Cadle took photographs during the subsequent attack, capturing an empty condom box, a watch inside his car and the suspect himself getting out of the truck, De Leon said.

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When Cadle went to authorities in 2017, she had evidence of what she said Henry did to her. In 2019, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually beating a minor. Ledger reported.

Her charges were overturned PBS NewsHour reports.

The detective who questioned Cadle and arrested her on charges of lying to police and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd did not respond to comments from De Leon or PEOPLE.

As for Cadle, she hopes her story will help other children who are victims of child abuse.

Speaking about the authorities she has encountered that have failed her, she says: “I want them to understand what they did and see clearly where they messed up, to really see what happened and fix it. Because no child should ever have to go through what I went through.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis text line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.