Detective’s personal DV plea

“As a detective with the Queensland Police Homicide Investigation Unit I’ve attended too many domestic violencerelated homicides.

I’m writing this to appeal to every member of our community to consider how they can play a part to stop this.

Too many times I’ve heard one partner tell me how sorry they are and that they didn’t mean for their partner to die. It’s too late. Too many times I’ve witnessed kids watch as one parent is taken away in handcuffs, while facing the reality of burying the other.

Too often I hear friends and family say they’ve observed signs of domestic violence, yet they didn’t report it.

Domestic and family violence frequently involves an ongoing pattern of abuse rather than an isolated incident of violence, so how can it be that no-one spoke up or tried to intervene?

People justify their inaction to us by saying they didn’t speak out due to the risk of it costing a friendship. The truth is that not speaking out could cost a life. Trust your instincts, make the call.”

Important contacts:

Emergency, 000; DVConnect Womensline, 1800 811 811 (24 hours, 7 days); DVConnect Mensline, 1800 600 636 (9am to midnight, 7 days); Elder Abuse Hotline, 1300 651 192 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday)