STEPHANIE lives everyday fearing for her life.
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The Ballarat woman is in hiding following the release of her violent ex-partner, who was jailed for four and half years for rape and sexual assault. The attack occurred when Stephanie, who was only 16 at the time, broke off their relationship.
She was abducted from central Ballarat on her way to school and subjected to a violent four-and-a-half hour ordeal, despite an intervention order being in place. Now, she says she is terrified of becoming another statistic. "We've got a system in place which protects the perpetrators more than the victims,” she said. “Legally he needs to know where I am living to stay at least one kilometre away from my house. But I’m not even allowed to know what town he is in or if he plans on coming back to Ballarat.”
Stephanie said the current system was failing victims, who lived everyday crippled by fear. “I was assaulted and raped while there was interim intervention order against him,” she said. “My life has become a never-ending nightmare. This should never been allowed to have happened.”
Stephanie said she is frustrated by the way police and the Victorian legal system have handled her case. Under the existing legislation for intervention orders, police are unable to disclose details of the whereabouts of perpetrators to victims. As her ex-partner was being lead away in the courtroom he unleashed a tirade of threats which still haunt Stephanie. ”He told I'm dead, that I'm a dog and he's going to get me."
Since the attack Stephanie's life has stood still. She has suffered depression, anxiety and agoraphobia and been unable to work.
The violence throughout their three month relationship was further intensified by her ex-partner’s drug use which included a dangerous cocktail methamphetamine, heroin, speed and marijuana. When he was coming off a drug-fuelled bender, he’d inject himself with morphine.
“He absolutely terrified me,” she said. “He was uncontrollable and explosive. It didn’t matter if he was on drugs or coming off it. He’d flip out at the smallest things. He’d constantly belittle me and he was financially abusive. He would take all my money to pay for his drug addiction...he had total control of me. I was too afraid of what would happen to me and my family if I didn’t give him what he wanted.”
On the day she ended her relationship with her ex-partner, Stephanie was at the police station getting a restraining order against him.
But the abuse didn’t stop.
“He’d taunt me and say an intervention order is just a piece of paper,” she said. “I've got one with no expiry date but to him it's still a piece of paper.”
As the days passed, the threats became more terrifying.
“He said he’d slit my throat if I didn’t take him back,” she said. “He threatened to burn down my family house with my family in it. He terroised me with threatening messages for weeks after we broke up.”
Then suddenly the messages stopped. The following day Stephanie was abducted.
"He was stalking me on my way to school,” she said. “He grabbed my arm and said we needed to talk. I kept saying no, but he said he was going to kill me and then kill my family if I didn’t go with him.”
After he sexually assaulted her, Stephanie was held hostage for another two hours. Following her ex-partner’s release, Stephanie has moved house and said she remained a prisoner inside her own home.
“I do not go outside,” she said. “I suffer panic attacks daily. I can't even go to the supermarket without somebody being there. For me to move forward I just need to know he is not in Ballarat."
Stephanie said she was speaking out to empower other women experiencing violence and to call for tougher penalties for perpetrators who breached intervention orders. Despite facing the Victorian Adult Parole Board numerous times, her ex-partner served his full sentence.
“There is no way for police to monitor him now,” she said. "For the system to have it that they must know where we live and we can't know where they are.. it's protecting them and not us. I'd really like to see the day the perpetrator doesn't have as much protection as the victim. A day where victims are able to live their lives not just exist in a cycle of fear.”
*Stephanie is not her real name
FOR THOSE NEEDING HELP CALL 1800 RESPECT, LIFELINE ON 13 11 14, WRISC ON 5333 3666 OR BALLARAT POLICE FAMILY VIOLENCE TEAM ON 5336 6000.