
“It’s never going to change. And if it does change, it’s only going to get worse. A hole in the wall will lead to a hole on your body.”
Tamara Henry, 25, knows this all to well. She lived it for five years, and is a survivor of domestic violence.
Seven weeks after her wedding to her ex-husband in 2018, and one year ago exactly today, Tamara says she nearly died by his hands on their marital bed.
Women and violence: The Hidden Numbers. Post continues after video.
“He picked me up by the throat and threw me into the toilet. I landed with my wrist in the bowl. I started screaming and crying, I was in a lot of pain.
“He was standing over me saying ‘shh babe, shh stop.’ He grabbed me by my hair and smashed my head into the toilet bowl so hard it broke. Before he’d even let go of my hair, he starts going ‘shh babe, stop crying, please stop.’
“I tried to crawl away, and he slammed my head into a solid wood door. I remember screaming as loud as I could,” Tamara told Mamamia.
Tamara ran into the bedroom and grabbed her phone. She’d been recording the fight, their worst one ever. But she quickly hit stop to instead call Triple Zero.
“He threw my phone away before I could dial. He threw me onto the bed, my head landed between the two pillows. He climbed on top of me, (he was 115kg, I was 50kg.) He wrapped his hands around my throat and I remember him pushing down and going ‘shut up shut up’.
“I have never heard something like that come out of a human. It was evil,” Tamara remembers.
“He was strangling me. I remember looking around thinking, what do I do? I thought ‘this is how you die. I’m going to die here.’ I remember trying to get as much air as I could but I couldn’t. My head started getting funny and then he just stopped. He got off,” she said.

Top Comments
Wow reading stories like this makes me sick to my stomach! I am very glad you got out of that relationship, unfortunately the cycle of abuse is one that is very hard to escape. Abusers make it so hard to leave, as they switch to begging and pleading as soon as you try to walk away only to repeat the cycle once you are back in their clutches.
Horrible things to say to someone you love, thankyou for sharing your story you are incredibly brave. I hope "Adam" stays away from women and fixes himself because I believe abusers truly have mental issues that stop them from seeing or caring how their actions affect others. Wishing you nothing but happiness in your future
- Emily
Why change the name of a convicted abuser? He certainly doesn't deserve any protection if all of this is true and he plead guilty.