AFTER two years as a Mount Isa court reporter there are certain crimes and facts that sound repetitive in the local Magistrates Court.
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The extreme form of domestic violence is one of these. Of men beating their partner to the point of being charged with torture, and of women throwing bottles or using sharp objects such as knives.
Listening to these cases makes me feel sick.
Maybe it’s because of how repetitive these cases are, maybe it is because quite often the defendant already has a history of violence against their partner, maybe because the fights seem to begin over the most trivial of matters; from the movement of a mattress, drunken comments, or jealousy over who the partner is communicating with in person or by phone.
Now, I have written a few of these articles, particularly since the resurgence of domestic violence awareness campaigns. It’s great to see such attendance from these awareness campaigns, and the strong stance from politicians and members of our own community here in Mount Isa. But it feels like, as always, there’s a big gap between what the politicians declare and promise, to the other end, behind the closed doors of the private house where when it reaches a certain point results in court room attendance. Victims can suffer for years. Their family members exposed over the years change their mindsets from levels of concern, to indifference, to victim blaming, or are hurt, feeling powerless to be able to do anything. I say this from personal experience.
I’ve witnessed domestic violence. In fact, I’ve been trapped in the spiral and watched firsthand the choices that my own mum had to make to finally escape her partner. Even then it’s not truly an escape, because years after she leaves she is still in fear of a private number. There was a point where I blamed her for continuing to accept his behaviour again and again, even as the children were hurt emotionally and eventually physically. The police officers who visited to check on her well-being did care, you could see this, but maybe now with adult eyes I can also imagine the frustration of the police officer. Because she would have seen the same situation 100 times before. -Chris Burns