At 15 years old, Hilda Onley was sexually abused at the NY State Training School for Girls, where she was incarcerated in 1958. Hilda has lived for over 65 years, haunted and traumatized by the abuse. She had faced an impenetrable statute of limitations until NY’s Child Victims Act was passed in 2019. Her case against the state began with limited time on the clock.

This short documentary is the story of 82-year-old Hilda’s fight for justice.

CONTEXT
A pair of recent statutes in NY State opened a brief window to allow victims of sexual assault for whom the statute of limitations had lapsed to get their day in court. The most visible example of a victim benefiting from this legislative change was E. Jean Carroll.  Currently, hundreds of less visible cases like Hilda’s are pending in New York courts related to the Adult Survivors and Child Victims Acts.