
He’s in prison for his second criminal conviction for domestic violence.
He’s categorised as highly likely to reoffend. And the time has come, in the 10-week behavioural rehabilitation program he’s undertaking, for him to tell the group about what he did. To talk about his thought processes in the lead up to the assault. It’s a pivotal moment in the course.
“I didn’t do it. We had an argument and she hurt herself getting out of the car.”

He was defiant.
His version of events doesn’t correspond with what a court has found and it doesn’t match the version of events his partner has given.
Sarah Ferguson was in that room, listening to this unfold, and found it challenging to hear.
“There is no sense of confronting them with what they’ve done. I wanted to say ‘You’re in prison because a judge found you guilty of assault.’ But that’s not how it works,” Ferguson explains. “What do you do with someone who doesn’t believe they even did it?”
He was then asked who his behaviour had impacted. “He didn’t mention his partner,” Ferguson says. “The moderator had to say ‘and….your partner?’ He said ‘Oh ok, yeah’.”
It hardly instills confidence in programs designed to rehabilitate and prevent repeat domestic violence offenders.
“Changing behaviour is a tall order. You can’t underestimate the difficulty in that. These are men in their 40s who have been behaving like this for a long time. These [programs] fail easily and are easy to criticise.”
Top Comments
Great article! I completely agree. We need to stop victim-blaming and start asking abusers, 'Why did you hit the victim?' https://themelodramaticconf...
DV is hard when your abuser is a cop, and is too clever to mark you physically. He has the power to stalk, a brotherhood who turn a blind eye, and he knows the system, and access to police data systems.There is no-one to turn to. Call the police and his mates turn up and you get talked out of making report. Go to court and he knows the system and has experience in twisting facts and presents better in court because he's familiar with it.