Trigger warning: This article deals with incidents of domestic violence and may be triggering for some readers.
Tara Brown’s day started like any other.
Just after 8.30am on Tuesday, like so many parents all over the country, she dropped her three-year-old daughter to childcare. The ordinary part of her day finished there.
Upon leaving the childcare centre, the 24-year-old mother-of-one discovered her partner waiting in his car. It must have been a chilling discovery.
Five days earlier she’d gone to the police for help. She showed them a series of text messages from her partner and explained she feared for her safety. She didn’t fear a random ‘road rage’ incident, as many national headlines continue to suggest. She feared what her partner might do to her.
Could she have known, then, how justified her fear was? Could she have known, then, just what brutality awaited her?
That five days later she would be in a coma? That six days later her family would have to turn her life support off? That her three-year-old daughter would be sentenced to a life without her mother?
Could she have known that she would be run off the road at 100 kilometres an hour on a suburban street?
Could she have known that a street full of people would then watch in horror as she was bludgeoned practically to death with a steel rod?
I hope she didn’t know but I suspect she might have. Domestic violence was familiar territory for Tara Brown: would she have turned to the police unless she feared the worst?
Tara Brown is the 61st woman who has been killed violently in Australia this year and, like at least two-thirds of those women, Tara was allegedly killed by a man she knew. She is another victim of this scourge that is killing almost two Australian women every week. Women of all ages, from all walks of life, whom are tragically united by their circumstances.
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Domestic violence is about power and control and the perpetrators idea of how things should be done. I know, cos I committed violence towards my ex partner over a 6 year period. Its beyond psychological imprinting. Its beyond learned behavioural patterns. Its a dormant, disease of the cells that will manifest if the right conditions are met. Is there a cure, maybe a remedy lays with quantum physics and sound waves. Other than that ... a bullet is the best cure for us at the present time. Abstaining from a relationship is the only course of action for an abuser. Understand, I would love to be normal loving relationship but there's a physical problem somewhere in my cells that needs to be removed. I'm picking that other abusers will relate to this comment. Make no mistake, I am not trying to make an excuse for domestic violence abusers. I am merely giving another perspective. Violence outright, in any form towards others is wrong. Ladies, you can't cure us. There are obvious signs that are present at the beginning of a relationship. Your intuition tells you so. Don't venture towards the bad boy type. When you gut feeling is telling you to run, "RUN."
It is not the fault of the Police, they are just as frustrated by the system as the women that are being let down by it, The police see it all the time they arrest perpetrators of domestic violence, charge them, then they are released within hours, often on little or no bail, "self recognizance" yes sir I promise I will show up in court sir. The case goes to court and then the Judge releases him on a good behavior bond, It is rare for a man that beats his partner to get jail time. They should not be allowed out on bail, No violent offender should, "He would lose his job, his friends, his wife/partner might disappear with HIS kids, Tough shit, until the Judiciary stops trivializing violence against women & children, It will not end. add to the list a woman that was shot in the head by her husband in a McCafe this week another woman AND her two children killed on a farm , another woman killed in the street . The toll just grows and nothing is done to force these men to stop.