Lynette Daley was raped and murdered in 2011. It took six years for her killers to be sent to prison.

Content warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following story contains images of deceased persons. This story also deals with domestic and sexual violence, which may be triggering for some readers.

Almost 12 years ago, on January 26, 2011, Lynette "Norma" Daley and her partner Adrian Attwater, along with Attwater's friend Paul Maris, went on a camping trip.

It was a hot Australia Day and the trio, who were drinking heavily, camped at isolated Ten Mile Beach, which is north of the town of Yamba in New South Wales.

Attwater then performed a violent sex act on Lynette while she was too intoxicated to either consent or fight back. She suffered horrific internal and external injuries from the rape. Maris also participated and raped Lynette.

The men then drove Lynette to the beach, where Attwater took Lynette into the water in an effort to revive her and perhaps to wash the blood off her. By then, Lynette had lost two litres of blood.

Several hours after the rape, on the morning of January 27, Maris finally called an ambulance. By then, it was far too late. When the ambulance arrived, they found Lynette cold, naked, and unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lynette was only 33 years old. She was a mum to seven children.

An autopsy would later find her death was caused by blunt force genital tract trauma and that she had bled out from two deep lacerations to her vagina. Her blood alcohol concentration was dangerously high at 0.352, which means she would absolutely not have been awake to provide consent to anything, let alone sex.

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Attwater lied straight-faced to the police, telling them that he had had no idea Lynette was in any pain and that she had fallen unconscious in the ocean after going for a swim. According to the ABC, he explained that the trio had been "on the piss" and had engaged in a "wild sex session" with Lynette "for sure" consenting.

He was charged with manslaughter over her death and Maris was charged with being an accessory. At the time of the charges, both men were already known to police.

However, the charges were later dropped by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Lloyd Babb SC.

Three years later, in 2014, coroner Michael Barnes recommended that the two men be charged as he found their version of events to be "inconceivable and dishonest", but, once again, the DPP would not prosecute, citing insufficient evidence.

Understandably, Lynette's family were horrified, shocked, confused, and traumatised with the decisions made by the NSW DPP. Her mother, Thelma Davis, told the ABC she was haunted by her daughter's death. Lynette's sister, Pauline, said that life was empty without her sibling.

"We don’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas anymore. Life is not the same. It's never going to be the same," Pauline said. 

"Lynette didn't deserve to be tortured. Lynette should be still here with us, seeing her kids grow up. But we're not going to get that because they took her from us. They took a beautiful, loving, wonderful sister and a mother."

Lynette's stepfather Gordon Davis said that Lynette was just a statistic with the DPP and that race was likely a factor.

"They didn’t care about her... You know, it was just another Indigenous girl, we'll sweep it under the carpet. You know, they're a dime a dozen, this happens all the time, we'll let it go," he said.

"I was wondering, if it would've been two Aboriginal boys had done that to a white girl, I reckon they'd be still in jail."

While the decision by the DPP to not prosecute drew fierce criticism from several legal experts, ultimately it was a Four Corners report called Callous Disregard in 2016 that led to a review of the NSW DPP's decisions. Following the review, Attwater and Maris were charged and put on trial.

In 2017, it took just 32 minutes for the jury to find both men guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Attwater was found guilty of manslaughter and Maris was found guilty of hindering a police investigation [he burned the mattress Lynette was assaulted on plus the clothes she was wearing].

Attwater was sentenced to 19 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 14 years and three months. Maris was sentenced to nine years, with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.

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At the sentencing, Justice Fullerton acknowledged Lynette's family and the trauma they felt after their beloved mother, daughter, sister, and friend was killed and her murderers were allowed free.

Outside court, Lynette's stepfather said the family was happy with the sentencing.

"There'll be no closure, but at least the court has ended. We know where they are now, we know they won't do it to anyone else," he said.

"The DPP has a lot to learn about Aboriginality and Aboriginals. You just can't sweep everything under the carpet, the way it was dealt with."

Again, he reiterated the difference between how white and Indigenous people were treated in the eyes of the law.

"If it was two Aboriginal boys and they had done that to a non-Indigenous person, they would've been in jail ages ago, and that's the difference," he said.

"I don't care how much you sugarcoat it, that is the difference."

For his part, the NSW DPP issued a statement and public apology following the trial outcome.

"The question of whether there are reasonable prospects of conviction is a predictive exercise and one about which reasonable minds can differ. Some of the evidence that informed the earlier decisions not to proceed with the prosecution was different to the evidence that was before the jury," the statement read.

"Nonetheless, I sincerely regret my office's involvement in the delay. The case has now proceeded through the criminal justice system. Today, I publicly apologise to Ms Daley's family and the community for that delay."

Last year, Attwater and Maris appealed to have their convictions overturned. The men's lawyers argued that the jury could not have found the murderers guilty based on the evidence because there was "insufficient evidence" to show Lynette did not give her consent.

The hearing lasted three days and was ultimately unsuccessful for Attwater and Maris. It was found that Lynette's blood alcohol level, witness statements, and her physical injuries all led to the conclusion she was too intoxicated to consent and that the men had killed her.

According to the ABC, part of the judgement read: "The jury, with all of the life experience of its members brought to bear, was entitled to conclude that the injuries of which it saw graphic evidence would have caused pain to any woman who suffered them, regardless of any individual capacity to tolerate pain."

Dr Hannah McGlade, a Nyungar woman, Associate Professor at the Curtin School of Law, and expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues spoke about Lynette's case at the Human Rights Council in 2016.

"This shocking case showed the violent racism, not just of the individual male perpetrators who violated her in the most inhumane way, but of the legal system that also failed to treat her life as worthy," Dr McGlade told Mamamia.

"We are all supposed to be equal before the law but Aboriginal women are still treated as second-class citizens whose lives don’t matter. This has to stop."

Mamamia recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are the unheard victims of domestic violence and want to break the silence. This year, we have made a commitment to tell more of their stories, amplify their voices, raise awareness of the issue, and be united in our conversations about how we end violence against women for good.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.

You can also call safe steps 24/7 Family Violence Response Line on 1800 015 188 or visit safesteps.org.au for further information.

Feature Image: Supplied.