Warning: this post contains graphic descriptions of domestic violence that may be triggering for some readers.
Richelle Kadadi is haunted every day by the thought that her son was nearly forced to face life without his mum. It was all because of one man, a man she loved.
Kadadi was hospitalised with severe injuries and bleeding to her brain after her then boyfriend, ex-Brisbane Lion’s player, Albert Proud, brutally assaulted her in November 2015.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to five and a half years behind bars for grievous bodily harm and willful damage, after an attempted murder charge was earlier dropped due to lack of evidence. With time already served, he’ll be eligible for parole in October next year.
Appearing on The Project last night, Kadadi slammed the decision.
“It is a let down. It’s a let down for me, it’s a let down for everyone,” she said. “I’ve had hundreds of messages of support [from] people who have gone through similar things, and I just feel like it’s let them down.”
Albert Proud and Richell Kadadi. Image: Facebook.
Proud, 27, had a colourful criminal record, including offences for violence against women, and was on parole when he bashed Kadadi that night.
"I had seen him act oddly before when he drank; we'd already talked about it. But I could normally calm him down," she said on last night's episode.
But that night in November, he didn't hold back.
The couple had been at a friend's wedding, and Kadadi previously told The Courier Mail that Proud had being typically "loving and affectionate" all evening. But when she drove him home, things suddenly changed. Without a word, he drunkenly turned on her, punching her in the chest.
"I was petrified. Absolutely petrified," she said during tonight's interview. "I remember thinking, 'he's going to kill me'. So then I started begging him, I thought 'act weak' and I started begging him, saying 'please, please, my son, my son', trying to get some rationality into his brain."
Kidadi's suffered a horrific brain injury in the attack. Image: The Project.
Somehow she managed to escape, aided by friends who happened to be driving by and were able to rush her to hospital. There she was placed in a coma, and lost a quarter of her blood from a horrific brain haemorrhage.
"There were people in there that had brain injuries by getting hit by cars, and I was put in the same place by a man's bare fist," she told The Project on Monday night
But she survived, and she's not taking that for granted.
"I do feel like I was physically hurt in probably the worst possible way, but I don't feel like my spirit was broken," she said.
"I think if you don't have that spirit then you may as well have died. So I just need to get on with my life and keep on living it and being the best mum I can, and try and enjoy every second."
For 24-hour domestic violence support, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or head to https://www.1800respect.org.au.
Top Comments
I have been in two abusive relationships and I have come from a family of origin with an abusive parent. So I get that abusive relationships are complex and complicated. I extricated myself from all three relationships with a lot of support and the beginnings of inklings of self-belief and self-worth that came from my trusted friends and health care providers and police that I deserved better, that I didn't have to put up with it for a moment longer. So it breaks my heart when I see women who are still putting up with it. Richelle saying here, "I knew how to calm him down usually", meaning a very strong, large man has a nasty temper but his wife had to invest time and emotional energy diffusing an adult males temper tantrum. I am in no way victim blaming here, but want to draw attention to the fact that we need more resources to help victims and support them and make women believe they don't ever have to put up with this crap from an intimate partner. It's disgraceful the Libs have decimated the DV services budget, the only way I got out of my situations was with a helluva lot of help, and we should be allocating MORE funding not less.
So very sorry that you went through such horrible violence. Other women may hear her story and it might trigger a different way of thinking, i.e. maybe I thought I could keep myself safe and maybe I am wrong.
I do agree without question that the dv funding needs to be increased so dramatically so women and children have choices.
Men too?