BLACK OPS CHOKE
Wife recalls war hero’s choking attack: ‘He has this glare in his eyes ... and I knew I was in trouble’
This former SAS soldier walked from court despite being found guilty of choking his wife twice. She has moved home 10 times. The judge said he had served his country, suffered severe PTSD and would be a target in prison. Furious community leaders have asked about the PTSD of the victim and say the domestic violence scourge will only ease when society stops making excuses – for war heroes or not
A woman screams in terror, begging for her tormentor to stop ... apologising repeatedly.
“You’re dead,” her husband replies, cold and hard amid her cries for help.
The chilling words and chaos was captured on a triple-0 call about 1.20am on August 20, 2018 by a woman frightened her former SAS soldier husband was about to kill her.
As emergency services responded to the woman’s call, Shane Gibbs would strangle his wife twice. Her vision blurred and she wet herself in fear.
When police arrived minutes later, the woman walked out of the garage, past police and hid behind a neighbour’s mailbox. Gibbs, shirtless, asked police if he could put pants on, before returning. As officers spoke Gibbs crossed his arms and leaned a hand on the wall. “I’m just a bit in shock,” he said.
Metres away, the woman nursed bruising and bloodshot eyes.
This month in the Southport District Court she spoke of that night and the hangover of other alleged abuse from years gone by.
“I want to make one thing very clear,” the woman said. “You nearly killed me and it still haunts me every single day. It will never leave me. What you did all those years and even now is a choice.”
The woman spoke about how she would barricade doors and windows, hide household items that had cords so they could not be used to strangle her and ripped holes in pillows so she could breathe if smothered.
Gibbs, 50, was found guilty of two counts of choking after a three-day trial in March. He was sentenced this month to three years’ prison, but will not spend a day behind bars. He was ordered to pay the woman $5000 in compensation.
Judge Geraldine Dann gave him immediate parole release saying Gibbs had served his country, was suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prison would interrupt his rehabilitation and treatment and that as an exSAS soldier he would be targeted by other prisoners.
“I also find the evidence supports that the PTSD and physical injuries would mean that a sentence that involved actual imprisonment would weigh more heavily on you than a normal offender,” she said.
“There is evidence from your psychiatrist that the current plan is the appropriate plan and that there is an extremely high degree of probability your mental condition would deteriorate in absence of your current treatment and current plan.”
Judge Dann said Gibbs’ attack on his wife left the woman “terrified”. “(The choking) concerns behaviour that is recognised as not only inherently dangerous but also a predictive indicator of escalation in domestic violence offending, including homicide. Domestic violence is unfortunately very prevalent in our community and is utterly deplorable and utterly unacceptable.”
Gibbs met his future wife on the Gold Coast in 2005. They moved to Perth where Gibbs was based as a member of the elite SAS regiment, designed to be sent into the most tenuous and high-risk conflict scenarios.
Gibbs would go on to complete multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September 2008 he was severely shot in the chest during a five-hour fire fight. He bled for hours in a Jeep before other soldiers were able to get him and other wounded soldiers to safety.
In that same battle, fellow SAS soldier Mark Donaldson would be awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions under fire.
Gibbs’ wife was told he may not live and was immediately flown to Germany where Gibbs was airlifted for treatment.
The woman told the court that during an argument on Melbourne Cup day 2009, Gibbs pushed her head into a car window and when they arrived home choked and punched her. Gibbs denied the incident and the court was shown service records showing he had been on an SAS training course at the time.
Gibbs was deployed to Afghanistan again in 2012. He would later be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was medically discharged from the SAS in 2015.
After a brief stint in Thailand, the woman returned to Perth and Gibbs soon followed.
The woman described their relationship at that time as violent. She alleges Gibbs told her: “You have seen nothing yet, I don’t care if I spend the rest of my life behind bars, I will cut your head off.”
On another occasion, he is accused of saying: “You will sleep in the same bed as me. I will drag you there and that will be very frightening for you.”
The court was told Gibbs also threatened her life and told her she would “never see it coming” and to not call police.
He allegedly said: “I expect them to turn up tonight, there will be dead people everywhere.”
The woman said she hid for about two weeks before returning. At one stage she took $40,000 from their joint account in an effort to leave him.
On one occasion police were called to a domestic violence incident in their Perth home, arriving with a fully armed tactical team. Gibbs claimed in court he feared being shot by police. A domestic violence order was put in place.
The couple moved to Queensland in October 2017.
The night she was choked on the Gold Coast, the woman alleges she had found explicit sexual messages between Gibbs and another woman. An argument began. “He has this glare in his eyes and it’s like he glazes over and I knew I was in trouble,” she told the court.
The woman said she told Gibbs she was would call police, dialled triple-0, but did not know if the call connected before he attacked “hard and fast”. A recording of the call played to the court was filled with screams, the sounds of struggle and chaos. The first clear words are Gibbs saying: “You’re dead.”
“Why did you do this? Why did you do this to me?,” Gibbs asks. The woman replies: “I’m sorry.” Gibbs says: “No you are not. You have done this to me before.”
The screaming continued. The woman said she was on her stomach when Gibbs put his hand over her mouth. She managed to fight him off by grabbing his testicles.
She said she then felt pressure on her throat and she almost blacked out.
He allegedly threatened to “hunt down and kill” his wife.
The woman said she had moved 10 times, trying to ensure Gibbs did not know where she lived.
When Gibb’s barrister David Funch, instructed by Howden Saggers Lawyers, asked her about where she lived and naming the city, the colour appeared to drain from her face. “How did you know that?” she asked.
Gibbs said he was in the process of leaving their home when the woman called police.
“I believed that if I did not stop her from ringing police, I was going to be shot,” he said.
“If police did come to the house, I was going to be harmed as well as (the woman).
“I was trying to restrain her. I tried to take the phone … we both grabbed hold of each other and we crashed down very hard.”
Gibbs said prior to him leaving the military they had “normal arguments like most couples” but the verbal arguments escalated after his discharge. He said he was “scared shitless” when he left the home to talk to police.
The woman often broke down in tears while reading her victim impact statement to the court via phone: “I have had to ask myself how did I keep going back to you, after all the times you abused me. It is because you kept telling me you have changed, you won’t hurt us, you guarantee our safety, that you were seeking professional help, when in fact, you weren’t.”
The woman said she had not seen any evidence Gibbs was remorseful, but still lives in fear of him. “You were the one who was supposed to protect us. Not the one we needed protection from.”