On Wednesday morning, a 27-year-old woman named Gabriella Thompson was murdered.
According to friends, she was “quiet” and “shy”. A mother to a baby girl, Thompson is described as having a tough upbringing, but growing into a “kind” and “beautiful” young woman.
The night before, neighbours overheard arguing from the house in Glendale, west of Newcastle.
At approximately 10:30am the following morning, Thompson was allegedly stabbed repeatedly by the father of her child.
WATCH: Women and violence, the hidden numbers. Post continues after video…
Tafari Walton, 21, had only seven weeks prior been granted bail and released on parole. He had a history of mental illness and domestic abuse, and two years earlier had staged a tense siege involving a firearm against police outside his mother’s home.
The details of the attack on Thompson are too horrific to bear repeating here.
Emergency services arrived on the scene, and Thompson was transported to John Hunter Hospital. She died shortly after arrival.
The following day, Walton was shot dead by police after threatening them with a knife. A little girl will now grow up without a mother or a father.
How can one put into words all the things Thompson will never be able to do? It feels ridiculous to even try. And all because the father of her child allegedly thought her life was his to take.
If you’re a woman between the ages of 18 and 44, then intimate partner violence is the leading contributor to illness, disability and premature death, according to White Ribbon.
Thompson was the thirteenth woman in Australia – that we know of – killed violently in 11 weeks, the Counting Dead Women Australia researchers of Destroy The Joint tell us.
One week ago it was Preethi Reddy, murdered at 32, her body found in a suitcase.
In February, it was Darshika Withana, aged in her 40s. Police and paramedics were called to a block of units in Balga, where the woman died at the scene. A 44-year-old man, believed to be her partner, has been charged with her murder.
In January, it was an unnamed 31-year-old woman, who had friends over at her home in Pretty Pine when she was shot in the head.
Her unnamed husband has been charged with manslaughter.
“Domestic violence…” a friend of Thompson’s said following her brutal murder.
“It happens so often unfortunately, what can we do about it?” she asked, the question underpinned with a sense of hopelessness.
But it’s not hopeless.
We know what we can do about it, because research has emphatically told us.
The first, is that no matter how often these stories take place, we write about them. We talk about them. We share them.
The nature of news is that we focus on the unusual – the exceptional. The headline ‘Woman murdered by partner’, is at this point, neither.
But we can’t accept the one woman a week statistic as inevitable. It is our national shame – a crisis that needs be addressed urgently on an individual and governmental level.
Fiona McCormack, the CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria says at an individual level, we need “zero tolerance of violence against women”.We need to understand that these men are not monsters, but everyday people who live among us. Furthermore, we need to challenge “sexist or derogatory attitudes towards women,” because, as McCormack puts it, “violence is the ultimate expression of sexism”.
On a social level, we need to intervene earlier. McCormack says we need to empower women with the early warning signs, and interrupt acts of violence before they evolve.
As it stands, Australia has an outstanding national framework and national action plan. But, as McCormack says, “it’s only as effective to the extent to which it’s invested in”.
In 2018, the budget invested $18.2 million to frontline family violence services and to increasing national awareness – a figure that simply is not enough.
In the same year, they investment $1.2 billion into preventing terrorism – which is incredibly important, but offers an interesting contrast.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. For more information about a service in your state or local area download the DAISY App in the App Store or Google Play.
Top Comments
The ignorance displayed in this article is incredible. Let's get some facts straight. ONLY 7 WOMEN have actually died from domestic violence related issues. The rest are individual murder cased and NOT domestic violence related. A few of the women have actually been killed by other women, and yet we still have a higher male death rate thats not being addressed. The reason so many people are turning a blind eye to these issues, is because of the utter biase, agenda, purposeful discrimination and segregation of the sexes, like the author of this article. YOU WILL NOT RESOLVE THE ISSUES while you continue to focus on one side of the situation. Plain and simple.
'Only' 7 women have actually died from domestic violence related issues.
'Only' 7...........
So I guess that's okay then, lets move on and talk about something that matters, like men dying.
This is why MRA's aren't taken seriously. Because they refuse to allow discussions to occur that aren't about how badly men are suffering, and use tactics like this to derail conversation. It's okay for a story to be about something you can't relate to personally. Really. You don't have to try to change the narrative to make it about you.
Exscuse me! I do 1st hand know about DV! I've had my teeth shattered, my collarbone broken, my head put through a wall, my knee sliced open and various other injuries from domestic violence from women! I've reported and guess what, NOTHING was done, so I attempted suicide 3 times. Do not tell me I don't understand first hand. It Has nothing to do with MRA's, it's to do with the PROPER facts, and the PROPER information, instead of creating false information to create a false narrative. If you want to look at it in a different light? Ok, so 14 women have died, guess what 44 men have, where is the condemnation on those numbers for innocent lives taken. Alot of you don't seem to fathom, that articles like this segregate us as a society, and it gives false power to that. It should not! We should be looking at the fact 59(including 1 child) are sadly killed through pathetic unnecessary violence. MRA's aren't about shutting what's happening to women down, they're about getting ALL the CORRECT information and working together to solve this problem. Best wake up to that, because we're loosing 1300 men a year, to suicide to this issue alone. Alot of them had kids, so should the kids continie to go without fathers, while we ignore the bigger picture? I'll leave that one for you....
You've made my point for me Rob. You are seeing this through a filter of what happened to you. Did it occur to you that you might not be the only person on this thread who has experienced DV? And nobody said you didn't experience or know about it.
Why isn't she (or you) talking about homelessness, or terrorism, or child abuse, or farmers? Because it's a story about women dying. 7 of them at the hands of their intimate partner. It's okay for this story to be about that. It doesn't mean the other things aren't important - just that they aren't the topic at hand. The real question is why you tried to make them the topic at hand.
What segregates us as a society is not articles like this - it's violence, aggression and entitlement. Yet I don't see you asking to talk about who are primary perpetrators of violence.
If you feel passionate about these issues, then perhaps you should write a story about them. And if you do that, please do me a favour and count how many people show up asking 'what about women?', then report back here.
As a matter of fact I do talk about homelessness, but again, all you want to do, like most typical ignorant feminists, is irnore the fact that women aren't the only victims, and you want to continue to shut down the fact the men have the right to voice their aggrevations too. Your constant replys of ignorance and self entitlement is exactly what fuels people like me to say women aren't only ones, and the facts portrayed are wrong. Guess how many men have died at the hands of their intimate partner? Try 8, but hey, it's men, who gives a fuck right. IF you also want to have an attack on me about seeing this through my own eyes, thats EXACTLY what all victims do and thats how the systems get implemented!
The fact that the weekly murder of women in Australia has become unremarkable is in itself remarkable, in the most appalling way. What a disgrace. That it is seemingly accepted and not treated as a national emergency beggars belief.