Domestic Violence Victims Remembered
Every one of the 81 roses handed out at the recent Hills Says No to Domestic Violence breakfast represented a victim and carried their name and age and State or Territory.
The annual event organised by the Hills Domestic Violence Prevention Network is a moving event that shows that violence is not restricted to postcode or age.
There were babies and children and there were mums and grandmothers amongst the victims.
Hills Police Commander Supt Naomi Moore told the gathering that violence, fear and control in a relationship is not ok.
Between January this year and the middle of November in the Hills there had been 1,892 DV-related events reported in the Hills PAC.
“Of these,1,077 also included a Child at Risk incident, accounting for 56.9% of DV events reported,” she said.
According to local police figures there were 1,667 individual victims across DV incidents in the Hills PAC in the first 10 months of 2024. In that time, Hills PAC submitted over 500 ADVO applications.
“We have created: 111 charges for Breach ADVO, 220 charges for Domestic Violence (DV) Assault, 62 charges for DV-related Malicious Damage incidents and 114 charges for DV ‘Offence against Person Other’ incidents – this encompasses stalking, intimidation,” said Supt Moore.
She said DV was a priority in the Hills PAC where 4 officers focussed on the area of DV. She said while most DV victims were women not all of them were.
She said on average DV incidents occurred 26 times before police were called.
“Reporting DV is so important, we will do everything we can to protect victims.”
Patron of the Hills Domestic Violence Prevention Committee, Hills Mayor Michelle Byrne, said the Hills Council had an important role to play in the area with education and working with stakeholders in the area.
Key note speakers were Rob and Deb Senasi whose powerful testimony spoke about how Rob realised he was a perpetrator after seeing a counsellor and was the one who informed his wife that she was a victim.
Deb said the power imbalance was gradual but the co-ercive control meant she had no access to money and was a second class citizen in her own home.”.
“It was all about me serving Rob, there was a climate of criticism, I knew it wasn’t right.”
She said it all came to head when she was offered a job and Rob had a breakdown, throwing things and shouting and went to visit a counsellor who called his behaviour out.
Rob worked on his issues and is now working with victims and young men as a counsellor and ADHD coach and he and Deb are back together.
Students from Oakhill College spoke about their own experience of supporting The Sanctuary _ The Hills Women’s Shelter and what they understood about respect through the Walk the Talk program.
Aileen Mountifield from the Lisa Harnum Foundation who has organised the event for the past 5 years said: “it’s very sad the number of people who have lost their life as a result of domestic violence already this year. This is the most roses we have had.”
If it’s an emergency called 000 (Triple 0) or help is available at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).