A University of New England student said her high school boyfriend robbed her of college life in the Teen Dating Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month episode of the “Let’s Talk About It” podcast.
The podcast, hosted by Patrisha McLean, CEO and founder of Finding Our Voices, features conversations with survivors of domestic abuse. The episode with 20-year-old Lilly DesRoberts, a pre-dental student at the University of New England with a campus in Biddeford, became available across all podcast platforms on Feb. 7.
According to DesRoberts, her first year of college in Rhode Island was plagued by her hometown boyfriend in Maine. She said he tracked her every move on the popular location-sharing app Life360 and hounded her with disturbing texts, including threatening to drive his car into the Saco River and stream the suicide on FaceTime.
According to McLean, electronic stalking and suicide threats are common tactics of abusers of all ages to get and maintain control of their intimate partners.
In the podcast, DesRoberts discussed how hard it was to escape the relationship, and her and her parents’ frustration with the York County district attorney for declining to charge her former boyfriend for the variety of criminal offenses he committed against her.
In addition to the podcast, DesRoberts joined McLean and two other domestic abuse survivors who gave a presentation about domestic abuse to medical students at UNE on Feb. 4. DesRoberts is also featured in the Finding Our Voices domestic abuse-awareness poster campaign featuring the photo portraits and quotes of 50 women survivors aged 18 to 85 including Governor Janet Mills.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” DesRoberts said, “and I hope to use my unfortunate experience to make a difference in the world and change in the lives of the many survivors of domestic violence.”
McLean’s conversation with DesRoberts is the 20th episode of the “Let’s Talk About It” podcast. Her conversations with survivors of domestic abuse also air on the community radio station WMPG out of Portland, run by University of Southern Maine students.
Finding Our Voices is the grassroots nonprofit connecting Maine women survivors of domestic abuse and providing resources including financial assistance, access to free dental care, and an online support group. For more information, visit findingourvoices.net/
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