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Helen Nicholls can tell most of the story of how her husband accused her of cheating on him, threatened to kill her and slashed her with a samurai sword in her bed, without breaking down.<\/p>\n
Twice after the attack in early July, in which she sustained a three-centimetre deep gash to her arm, she has had to leave work because she found herself sobbing \u201cfor no reason\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Helen Nicholls asks \u201cdo I have to be a corpse before anything is done\u201d by the justice system to better serve victims of family violence.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n But Nicholls contains her emotions as she recounts the events which led to the perpetrator pleading guilty on November 6 to making a threat to kill and intentionally causing injury.<\/p>\n She is only overcome when it comes to discussing what she believes is a lack of meaningful consequences for serious violence, and the way victims feel abandoned.<\/p>\n Having braved the justice system, something research suggests many victim-survivors find too intimidating, Nicolls is left with the question: \u201cDo I have to be a corpse before something is done?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m talking to you because there\u2019s got to be a change in the judicial system: they\u2019ve got to realise that you can\u2019t be hurt and abused and then there are no consequences. You smack your child, and you have DHS on your case, but you can belt your wife, you can attempt to take her head off and there\u2019s nothing?\u201d<\/p>\n The number of Australian women who have died by violence in Australia in 2023 has reached 53, including four deaths in the past week in South Australia. Nicholls is determined to get her story out because she believes victim-survivors of serious family violence are not protected well enough or served by courts.<\/p>\n On the night she was attacked, Nicholls\u2019 husband said he would cut her head off, she alleges.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came in really, really agitated \u2026 lost the plot and was accusing me of being with a person down at the hotel \u2013 not true \u2013 picked up a samurai sword, taking it out of its sheath, and started waving it around,\u201d says Nicholls, a 62-year-old factory worker who loves collecting antiques, including the three decorative swords.<\/p>\n \u201cHe brought it down to my head, [and] I put my arm up instinctively.\u201d She believes that, \u201cif I hadn\u2019t put my arm up to block the first blow, I would have had my throat cut \u2026 it was one or the other\u201d.<\/p>\n Thousands of people participated in the Walk Against Family Violence in the Melbourne CBD on Friday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Luis Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI jumped out of bed, went to my bathroom, grabbed a towel and wrapped my arm up and said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to get to hospital, I\u2019m in trouble here\u2019. He said, \u2018no\u2019 grabbed me by the hair, brought me back and said to me, \u2018I\u2019m going to cut your f\u2013ing head off, and I\u2019ll do the 25 years\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicholls says she is grateful for training she received when working in security, as it meant she knew she needed to try to stay calm. But it did not help her get out of the house.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to go to hospital\u2019, and he just wouldn\u2019t let me leave. He\u2019s 6\u20327\u2033,\u201d says the grandmother of 10.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just got in my face had his teeth on my cheek \u2026 as he was speaking, his teeth were gnashing on my face, he said I wasn\u2019t going to hospital, I could just bleed.\u201d<\/p>\n The next step is \u2026 we ring the undertaker. There doesn\u2019t seem to be any middle ground: they don\u2019t take it seriously unless you\u2019re dead.<\/p>\n He then suggested he could \u201cfix\u201d the wound, to which Nicholls agreed, and when he went for the first aid kit she \u201cgrabbed the keys and ran\u201d. She went to Rye police station, which was unattended, called police and ambulance services for help and was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n On the day of the court case, Nicholls says she was assured her perpetrator would be in custody for some time, even though she did not feel she could cope with what she had been warned would be an aggressive cross-examination that was necessary to pursue a further charge of deprivation of liberty.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to get up there and have to relive this again, and then get told that I brought it on, deserved it, or whatever, that\u2019s just so wrong\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The perpetrator was released on a community corrections order, having already served four months in prison. Nicholls says this left her feeling dismayed and let down by a system she believed would offer heavier consequences for offenders, and more protection for victim-survivors.<\/p>\n Helen Nicholls says she no longer feels safe outside her home.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cThe court has actually made me angrier than [the perpetrator] did,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s my [now former] husband and he\u2019s supposed to protect me, but when that fails, the only step you\u2019ve got is the court to protect you: they say they\u2019re going to send a message, and then they do nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next step from there is, we ring the undertaker. There doesn\u2019t seem to be any middle ground: they don\u2019t take it seriously unless you\u2019re dead \u2013 and there was another lady killed in South Australia yesterday \u2013 nothing\u2019s changing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI seriously realise now that it\u2019s all about the perpetrator, it [the justice system] has got nothing to do with the victim, it really doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n As thousands took to the streets on Friday in the 2023 March Against Family Violence, Kate Fitz-Gibbon, board chair of Victoria\u2019s family violence primary prevention agency, Respect Victoria, said victim-survivors should not be facing a justice system that fails to secure their safety and retraumatises them.<\/p>\n Many victims feel they can\u2019t safely give evidence and be cross examined and that\u2019s an example of the system \u2026 failing to provide justice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe justice system was made by men and for men, and all too often survivor accounts tell us, continues to serve the interests of men,\u201d Professor Fitz-Gibbon said. \u201cThe evidence has long told us that all too often the justice system is traumatising and can leave women in fear of further violence once court proceedings are finished.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we are to achieve effective legal system responses to violence against women then we need to reexamine our laws and policies \u2013 and how they are interpreted and applied by those in power.\u201d<\/p>\n It takes victim-survivors immense courage to report to police and navigate the legal systems, Fitz-Gibbon said, and \u201cdespite significant efforts, systemic inequalities persist\u201d.<\/p>\n Victims of Crime Commissioner Fiona McCormack said many victims felt they could not safely give evidence and be cross-examined.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard time and time again that victims are being further traumatised by a system which makes them feel unsafe, unheard, and unprotected from people who terrify them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard of too many cases where authorities failed to act on not one, but several red flags, and it is time agencies started talking to each other in real time, so things don\u2019t fall through the cracks. It\u2019s incredibly frustrating that urgent changes aren\u2019t being made when people\u2019s lives and well-being are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenny McNaughton, of Berry Street, one of Australia\u2019s largest family services agencies, said efforts to ensure justice and protection for family violence victims are insufficient and a significant number, particularly those who are too terrified to navigate the system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s much more to be done regarding holding men accountable and monitoring risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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