Sleepers: The Adelaide Oval Abductions #9

In 1973, seven-year-old Donna was at the Adelaide Oval the day Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon disappeared.

She played with two little girls outside the toilets. Then they were gone.

Police interviewed Donna soon after, took her statement, and promised to follow up on the matter. They never did.

For fifty years, her memories sat alone until now.

In this episode, Donna shares what she saw that day, what she later learned about her own father, and how her life became entangled with the family of the man long suspected of taking those girls — Stanley Arthur Hart.

Her testimony reveals a chilling web of names, methods, and silences stretching across generations:

• A father who used hypnosis like Hart once did.
• A grandson who repeated the same violence.
• Families whose lives kept circling the same dark secret.

It’s not coincidence. It’s connection.

And as this web tightens, the pattern of South Australia’s hidden crimes begins to take its true shape.

Hosted by Bryan Littlely. Narration by Max Marten.

Music by Cody Martin.

Produced by Bearslayer Media / Leave A Light On Inc.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 8 of Sleepers takes listeners back to Yatina, the remote mid-north town in South Australia, where truth and terror share the same ground.

In conversations with journalist Bryan Littlely, the survivor of the 1966 assault that ultimately led to the only prison time that Stanley Arthur Hart ever served, they recall growing up in Stan Hart's orbit, a man they would both quickly realise was the monster hiding in plain sight.

From their first memories of the terror to the police investigations and successive governments that failed them, their stories reveal the human cost of silence and the strength it takes to speak after so long.

Max Marten’s narration traces how a 2013 call to police set off the SAPOL Major Crime dig, how other survivors’ voices converged, and how two adjoining properties in Yatina have become a symbol of everything South Australia still refuses to confront.

As the final minutes unfold, one quiet statement from Amanda stops everything cold:

‘That wasn’t my shoe.’

A phrase that reopens the questions the state never answered, and propels Sleepers toward its most unsettling chapter yet.

⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised.

• Lifeline Australia – Crisis Support & Suicide Prevention: 13 11 14 (24/7)
• Kids Helpline – For young people aged 5–25: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)

Beyond Blue – free, confidential telephone counselling 24/7: 1300 22 4636

• MensLine Australia – Counselling for men: 1300 78 99 78
• 1800RESPECT – National Sexual Assault, Domestic & Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800 737 732 (24/7)

United States

• RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 1-800-656-4673 (24/7)
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Dial 988 (24/7)

United Kingdom

• NSPCC (for children & young people): 0808 800 5000
• Samaritans UK: 116 123 (24/7)
• NAPAC (National Association for People Abused in Childhood): 0808 801 0331

Canada

• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868 (24/7)
• Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 (24/7)

New Zealand

• Safe to Talk (Sexual harm helpline): 0800 044 334 or text 4334 (24/7)
• Lifeline New Zealand: 0800 543 354

Europe (general)

• 116 123 – European standard suicide helpline (works in many EU countries)
• 116 111 – Child Helpline Europe

Global

• Child Helpline International: childhelplineinternational.org/child-helplines
• International Suicide Hotlines Directory: findahelpline.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of SLEEPERS, the silence is broken by voices that can no longer be ignored.

Three Warrior Women, survivors, witnesses, and sisters, step forward to reveal what they saw, what they lived through, and what was covered up.

Their accounts point deeper into the shadows of Stanley Arthur Hart and expose the cracks in systems that failed to protect the innocent.

What they share is confronting, unsettling, and impossible to dismiss.

And it is only the beginning. The revelations in this series are gathering momentum.

What lies ahead will challenge everything you thought you knew about the Adelaide Oval abductions.

SLEEPERS is not just unearthing the past. It is forcing the truth into the light.

⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised.

• Lifeline Australia – Crisis Support & Suicide Prevention: 13 11 14 (24/7)
• Kids Helpline – For young people aged 5–25: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
• Blue Knot Foundation – Counselling for adult survivors of childhood trauma: 1300 657 380
• MensLine Australia – Counselling for men: 1300 78 99 78
• 1800RESPECT – National Sexual Assault, Domestic & Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800 737 732 (24/7)

United States

• RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): 1-800-656-4673 (24/7)
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Dial 988 (24/7)

United Kingdom

• NSPCC (for children & young people): 0808 800 5000
• Samaritans UK: 116 123 (24/7)
• NAPAC (National Association for People Abused in Childhood): 0808 801 0331

Canada

• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868 (24/7)
• Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 (24/7)

New Zealand

• Safe to Talk (Sexual harm helpline): 0800 044 334 or text 4334 (24/7)
• Lifeline New Zealand: 0800 543 354

Europe (general)

• 116 123 – European standard suicide helpline (works in many EU countries)
• 116 111 – Child Helpline Europe

Global

• Child Helpline International: childhelplineinternational.org/child-helplines
• International Suicide Hotlines Directory: findahelpline.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.