Calgary woman gives voice to sexual abuse victims with new book

Frock Off - abuse survivor shares her story Jo Dibblee discusses how she has overcome a difficult period of her life

More than three decades after she was sexually abused as a teenager by a man in a position of power, Jo Dibblee’s memoirs have been published.

‘Frock Off: Living Disguised’ recounts Dibblee’s abuse at the hands of a trusted adult and the effort she undertook to hide from her attacker. Living in fear, Dibblee resorted to aliases and disguises, which she refers to as frocks, to evade her assailant who continued to stalk her.

Nearly 35 years after the attack, Dibblee decided to tell her story to provide a voice to a little girl who didn’t survive an attack at the hands of the same man who Dibblee alleges abused her.

12-year-old Susan Duff from Penticton was murdered in September of 1979. Susan’s uncle, Ernest Gardiner, was arrested and charged but never convicted due to a lack of evidence. Gardiner walked away from the charges a free man but has since died.

Dibblee was a key witness in Gardiner’s trial and, following his acquittal, she was forced into hiding.

Since Gardiner’s passing, Dibblee has reclaimed her life and revisited difficult times in order to write her memoirs in the hope of bringing strength to others.

"I don't know that I would've went down that path of being willing to put myself at risk being willing to be found or any of that if it wasn't that fact that Susan never had a choice," said Dibblee.

For more information on Dibblee’s memoirs, visit Frock Off: Living Undisguised.

With files from CTV's Kathy Le