logo
ENع
#

Latest news with #estrangedhusband

‘I lied because I was scared': Accused Aussie mushroom killer admits deception in court
‘I lied because I was scared': Accused Aussie mushroom killer admits deception in court

Malay Mail

time17 hours ago

  • General
  • Malay Mail

‘I lied because I was scared': Accused Aussie mushroom killer admits deception in court

SYDNEY, June 5 — An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with poisonous mushrooms told a court on Thursday she lied to police because she feared being held 'responsible'. Erin Patterson is charged with murdering her estranged husband's parents and aunt in 2023 by spiking their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth guest — her husband's uncle — who survived after a long stay in hospital. Patterson maintains the lunch was poisoned by accident and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. An Australian court was told Thursday how Patterson used a food dehydrator to prepare mushrooms that she had collected while foraging. Patterson later told police she did not own a food dehydrator, the prosecution said. 'You lied about dehydrating food and mushrooms because you knew that if you told police the truth, then that would implicate you in the poisoned lunch,' prosecution lawyer Nanette Rogers said on Thursday. 'Agree or disagree?' Patterson responded: 'I agree that I lied because I was afraid I would be held responsible.' The court previously heard that Patterson used a food dehydrator to preserve store-bought and foraged mushrooms, which she then kept in her pantry. Days after the deadly lunch, security cameras allegedly captured Patterson discarding the dehydrator at a local rubbish dump. Detectives said they found traces of death cap mushrooms in the dehydrator, the court previously heard. 'I didn't deliberately put death cap mushrooms in the meal,' Patterson told the court on Thursday. The prosecution alleges Patterson intentionally poisoned her lunch guests and took care that she did not consume the deadly mushrooms herself. Her defence says Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick. Beef Wellington Patterson asked her estranged husband Simon to the family lunch at her secluded rural Victoria home in July 2023. Simon turned down the invitation because he felt too uncomfortable, the court heard previously. The pair were long estranged but still legally married. Simon's parents Don and Gail were happy to attend, dying days after eating the home-cooked meal. Simon's aunt Heather Wilkinson also died, while her husband Ian fell seriously ill but later recovered. Patterson told the court on Thursday if Simon had attended the lunch, she would have 'given him a beef Wellington too'. 'But not one with death cap mushrooms in it intentionally,' she said. Patterson's defence lawyer Colin Mandy on Thursday asked if she intended to kill or cause serious injury to her lunch guests that day. Patterson replied she did not. The trial continues. — AFP

When home becomes hell: Why the Pacific has one of the world's highest rates of violence against women
When home becomes hell: Why the Pacific has one of the world's highest rates of violence against women

ABC News

time15-05-2025

  • ABC News

When home becomes hell: Why the Pacific has one of the world's highest rates of violence against women

Across the Pacific, women are being assaulted, abused and silenced — often by those they love most. In an effort to spark change, survivors, perpetrators and frontline workers want to show you what one of the world's worst abuse crises looks like, in the hope, that something might break the cycle. Warning: This story contains graphic accounts of gender-based violence and sexual assault. • Ritim long Tok Pisin • Every day, Lorena* says she lives in fear. "It's scary at times … three weeks ago, he chased me all the way up to the house — wanted to choke me," she tells us. Lorena lives in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby. She says she used to live with her husband in a house in an urban settlement on the city's fringe; but one night a few years back, her husband came home drunk and burned the place to the ground. Lorena recalls her daughter's screams. "'Mummy, the house is on fire! The house is on fire!' … "Whatever little savings we had, clothes or laptops, electrical appliances … it was all lost." With a support worker by her side, Lorena tell us about the years of physical and psychological torment she's suffered at the hands of her now-estranged husband. She says over the years he would disappear for extended periods, only to return at random — most recently earlier this year. He's broken bones, choked her … even left her sleeping rough or homeless. "I'm trying my best to pretend that I'm okay, but I'm a broken woman," she says, holding back tears. Her story is not uncommon. In Papua New Guinea, gender-based violence is a scourge, with a 2023 United Nations report noting that over two-thirds of women in the country will experience physical or sexual abuse in their lifetimes. Earlier this year 23-year-old Margaret Gabriel was abducted, raped and murdered in a settlement outside Port Moresby, a killing Prime Minister James Marape described as "barbaric". She was one of three women killed in the capital that week alone. "In these settlements, I think out of every 100 women, 99 of them experience violence," Lorena adds. "[I've seen] women die. I've witnessed little girls being raped. I've witnessed women being tortured." Gender-based violence endemic across Pacific with complicated challenges For this story, the ABC's The Pacific program embarked on a multi-country investigation to understand the causes — and solutions — to gender-based violence in the region. While domestic violence is a global issue, study after study shows the Pacific to have among the highest rates in the world, with up to 79 per cent of women experiencing some form of abuse over the course of their lives in some places. The culture of silence around domestic violence in Pacific communities remains pervasive, making the accounts we heard all the more revealing. It also means that some names, identities and details have been changed or redacted for safety or legal reasons. But this is not a story of victimhood. Working with a team of all female reporters, The Pacific met with survivors, perpetrators and frontline services across the region, travelling to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa and Solomon Islands. And while there are many Pacific women and organisations working to address gender-based violence, tackling the issue is daunting — the scale is immense, and the causes multifaceted. In Fiji, the depth of the problem was brought into sharp focus in late April when three people died in alleged domestic violence incidents over a single weekend. A week later, Fijian officials told parliament that gender-based violence was costing the country seven per cent of GDP per year, with similar costs estimated for other Pacific countries, too. Associate Professor Yvonne Chrichton-Hill, the director of social work programs at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, says no single factor causes domestic violence, but there are common threads, many of which are disproportionately present in Pacific nations. "A lack of skills … not being able to manage conflict in a healthy way," Dr Crichton-Hill says. "Or maybe individuals and families have had [previous] experiences of family violence themselves." At the macro level it's often things like poverty and unemployment, and cultural norms about the role of women in families, that perpetuate their inferiority to men to justify or normalise violence. Then there are individual factors like addiction and substance abuse. Dr Crichton-Hill also adds that the colonisation of many Pacific countries had an impact. "Colonisation brought a range of ideas about gender that influence how women are treated in families today," she says. Through campaigning efforts in recent decades, laws in many Pacific countries have changed to enshrine greater protections for women and harsher punishment for abusers. In fact, many Pacific countries and territories have implemented new laws. But changes to the law mean little if officials, police or courts don't enforce them. One victim in a Fijian village relayed a story about how her husband knocked her teeth out and left her choking on blood. She told us how she reported him to the police, but when she went back to follow up her complaint, she said the police told her that her report was missing. A 2024 study of Fijian police officers found a majority didn't enforce the organisation's "zero tolerance" approach to domestic violence, and encouraged traditional means of settling cases, while only proceeding further with a case if a victim insisted. In PNG, Lorena told us of similar challenges and obstacles. She says she's reported her husband to the police many times. Occasionally he's been detained or locked up, but according to Lorena, her complaints never progress much further. "[The police] tell me to 'come back tomorrow' or 'we don't have fuel for the car'," she says. "It's traumatising for me, too — I'm thinking the law is there to help me, and it's not helping me, so what's the point?" Spokesperson for Papua New Guinea's police force Mark Karambi said the force had recently sacked officers accused of domestic violence and took a zero-tolerance approach to the issue. Mr Karambi also conceded that resourcing is an issue, but more so in rural areas. Dowries, breadwinners and withdrawn complaints In PNG, more than 1.5 million women will experience violence every year — and support services struggle, and often don't have the resources, to meet the enormous need. In addition to the patriarchal interpretations of Christianity brought with colonisation, many traditional practices are also deeply patriarchal. Some husbands in PNG will pay a 'bride price' to a wife's family when they get married — meaning some victims won't leave their abuser because they've been 'paid for'. Lorena says police or magistrates will tell victims to return to their abuser, saying a bride price has been paid. "And [some] go back and they end up dead — that's what is happening to a lot of women," she says. A 2020 study by UN Women also found police turned some victims away, and described the organisation as not "having the capacity to fulfil their role as duty bearer to victims". Police spokesperson Mr Karambi said police played a "mediatory" role between alleged perpetrators and victims in marriages where a bride price has been paid, but stressed "bride price is not a law, domestic violence, is a law." In Solomon Islands capital Honiara, we spent a day with two female police officers working in the domestic violence unit — 'bride price' is a common practice here as well. Constable Leah Adi told us some men think because they've paid a bride price, they have the right to do "anything they want." Constable Leah Adi (left) and Harriet Maeva (right) outside Naha Police Station. "From the law's perspective… even if you have paid for her bride price, the man has no right to abuse his wife," she says. Two out of three women in Solomon Islands have been physically abused by an intimate partner — and 63 per cent of men think it is acceptable to hit a woman in certain circumstances. These female officers sometimes feel like they are swimming against the tide. "[Many men have a] cultural barrier that is embedded in them where women are wrong, women should respect their husbands by not provoking them," Leah adds. "[Because of] our upbringing in a patriarchal… it's a norm that whatever the man of the house says is final." In Solomon Islands, we joined Honiara's domestic violence unit on a trip to serve a perpetrator with a notice for breaching a police order related to partner abuse. But the offender could not be found — a common issue in a country where many don't have a fixed address. Constable Adi told us that while abusive men can be issued with a notice to cease contact for 21 days, many female victims will return to the station later asking to have their complaint withdrawn, often for financial reasons. "If the [offender] is the sole breadwinner, and they stay apart from each other for 21 days, who'll provide for the family?" 'It was late, I was drunk' Growing awareness around gender-based violence has seen many groups spring up to help victims of abuse in the Pacific — many are even working with perpetrators. In Samoa, we met with one man who took part in a court-ordered Samoa Victim Support Group's (SVSG) counselling session for perpetrators. Benny* says one night, he and his wife were arguing. "It was past 9pm, I was drunk, and I asked my wife to do something… she refused, and then the incident occurred," he told us. Benny says he slapped his wife, and his sister then reported him to police. He says the program has since "helped him a lot," and he has now managed to quit drinking. Family violence is widespread in Samoa — according to a national inquiry, 90 per cent of gender-based violence is thought to go unreported, with nearly as many victims believing that the abuse is normal. We spoke to many survivors across the Pacific who echoed these statistics, downplaying the culpability of perpetrators while suggesting factors like stress, financial strain, or alcohol were the causes of the violence. One woman in Samoa who sought help through SVSG told us her husband hit her but "it wasn't a hard slap." "Arguments often stem from couples not working together, particularly when striving for financial stability to support their children." Significant progress at an agonising pace Dr Chrichton-Hill, Pacific social work expert at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Dr Crichton-Hill says interventions to address gender-based violence in the Pacific need to account for Pacific values. "Women in the Pacific live in a collective [society], valuing family and having community obligations … [Western models] that don't account for that are just not helpful," she says. She says studies show indigenous values like community, humility, respect and reciprocity can be leveraged as strengths — and survivors' voices must inform solutions. In Fiji's capital Suva, we met Lavenia Tuitabu, a counsellor at Fiji's Women's Crisis Centre doing just that. Lavenia Tuitabu. La — as many call her — explains that the centre receives on average 50 women per week seeking counselling or shelter. She regularly travels to villages — where victims of abuse face unique challenges like poor access to outside support and fewer ways to leave an abuser. In many village cultures across the Pacific, it is considered taboo for people to seek help from outsiders, or the law, to deal with family issues — but La and her team's work is having an impact. We travelled with La to one village where her team has already been conducting sessions. At one gathering in the village's meeting house, while it was clear that there were still problems, many told us about the positive changes they've experienced. One Fijian woman explained that her husband had started doing household chores, something the men of the village normally left for the women to do. A village elder agreed — saying he "noticed men actively doing chores traditionally done by women… even I now join my wife when she goes fishing — something I never did before." Although they may not seem like radical changes — these are the first steps towards recalibrating entrenched cultural norms. Back in Samoa — SVSG is appointing village representatives who can help victims file police reports or access frontline services. It's these types of locally led and culturally sensitive approaches that Dr Crichton-Hill says have a chance at making a real difference. "Homegrown responses with women taking the lead are really important," she says. But as most organisations have told us, the resourcing required to meet the needs of all communities is not currently available to them. While back in PNG, Lorena has begun volunteering to help other survivors in her local community — she says it's helped her through her own trauma. "When I talk to them, I forget about my problems," she says. "When I go to the communities and I see other women going through this problem, I say: 'Okay, I'm not the only one going through this problem', so I use my experience to encourage them and to comfort them." But like so many other women we have spoken to, she says she wishes more could be done across the Pacific, so they wouldn't need comforting. Read the story in Tok Pisin. Watch The Pacific's special on the domestic violence here on iView or on YouTube Credits

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store