In an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday,Rosie Batty described “the deep tunnel of numbness and unbearable pain” her body and mind would enter after her son’s death.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“We’re still believing that it[happens] to other people:not in this nice little street,not to my neighbours,not to people like me ... Often I will hear people say,‘I don’t know anyone who would do such a thing. Not my son,not any of his friends.’ ”
But Batty looks at the statistics – one in three women experience violence;men are perpetrators 94 per cent of the time – and says this can’t be true:it’s highly likely that someone you know is a perpetrator of violence.
“So what do they look like? … I imagined a father harming his child to be one that was abusive and neglectful and a nasty man,horrible to his kids. Not somebody who was highly protective,and loving,and would go to the ends of the earth for him. I still can’t work that one out,” she said.
“We do need to really understand what different ways of abusing and controlling women look like. And there are many,in very influential and high positions,who will be controlling their wives financially,threatening them through the court system.”
After years of media exposure,Batty said Australians might forget why they know her. “I haven’t forgotten,though,” she said.
“And truth be told,the decade gone by weighs heavily on me in many ways ... Between many things I’ve grappled with since Luke’s death,large among them is the feeling of absolute despair I carry.