‘Prioritise women’s safety, not submarines’: Nation’s plea after Molly Ticehurst’s alleged murder

The alleged murder of a young woman has shone a light on the conversation half the population is tired of having.

In the past 23 days, 10 Australian women have been killed allegedly at the hands of a male perpetrator. That’s an average of one every 48 hours.

This week, Molly Ticehurst became the 10th. The 28-year-old NSW mum’s battered body was discovered by emergency services personnel in the early hours of Monday morning. Central West Police District Crime Manager, Detective Inspector Jason Darcy, described the “terribly violent” crime scene as among the worst he’d seen in his 34-year career.

Ms Ticehurst’s ex-partner, Daniel Billings has been charged with her murder. Fifteen days prior, the 29-year-old had been released on bail, charged with a raft of sexual and domestic violence offences against Ms Ticehurst, including allegations that he’d raped her three times.

An interim apprehended domestic violence order had also been made – banning Billings from contacting Ms Ticehurst, going within one kilometre of her home, work and other places. Ultimately, it was not enough to stop him from travelling to the central west town of Forbes – a town he had been banned from visiting – to allegedly kill his former girlfriend in her own home.

Ms Ticehurst’s death – like those of the 24 women before her allegedly murdered by a man in Australia this year, and the ones that will all but certainly follow – was avoidable.

And the PM quite rightly ackowledges we need to do better in respect of any instances of domestic violence.

“I can say all the normal stuff that people say about how their daughter was beautiful, but Molly really was,” her father, Tony, told Nine News on Monday.

“Someone’s got to be responsible. If they’d have kept him in jail as the police wanted, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Molly Ticehurst was found dead at a home in Forbes on Monday morning. Picture: Supplied/Facebook

‘I can say all the normal stuff that people say about how their daughter was beautiful, but Molly really was.’ Picture: GoFundMe

It’s a conversation Australian women are beyond tired of having.

Not only are we concerned for our safety, Leneen Forde Chair in Child & Family Research at Griffith University, Professor Silke Meyer, told news.com.au, but with “the priority given to ensuring (it) by our political leaders and the community more broadly”.

After the horrific mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13 – in which the five women murdered were “obviously” targeted over their gender, police said – commentary has been amplified in the media and community “on women no longer being safe in public and what this says about Australia as a nation”, Prof Meyer said.

“We don’t see the same sentiment after women being [allegedly] murdered in the context of their current or former intimate relationships,” she added.

“Many, many women haven’t been safe in their homes for a long time. We have had statistics of at least one woman being [allegedly] killed per week by a former or current partner for years. And this is only the visible tip of the iceberg of the lack of safety of women in Australia.

“Yet it seems to require a public tragedy to start the conversation.”

And start the conversation, it has. Last week, in the wake of multiple femicides in her own state, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan called violence against women “the number-one law and order issue” in Australia. Meanwhile, in an interview with Sunrise on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admitted the Federal Government “needs to do more” to grapple with it, once again calling on men and boys to step up.

Such acknowledgments, Respect Victoria chair Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon, told news.com.au, are “much welcomed and long overdue”.

“It is essential now that those statement are followed by real action and evidence-based commitments to address the crisis,” Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

While she said the release of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children in 2022 and an “unprecedented” funding commitment are “promising actions”, “the last month sharply brings into focus the scale of the crisis”.

“We must do more across the full spectrum of primary prevention, early intervention, response and recovery if we are to truly prioritise addressing men’s violence against women in this country,” Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

“We also need to ensure that the specialist domestic, family and sexual assault response sector is fully funded to support victim-survivors who are seeking safety away from an abusive relationship.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on men and boys to step up. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Ms Ticehurst’s alleged murder has also, once again, raised questions over the effectiveness of the response system, including police and courts, to keep women safe.

On Tuesday, NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged the “genuine, genuine community concern” – and anger and heartbreak of Ms Ticehurst’s family – as to why Billings had been granted bail.

“A woman’s safety is only as good as the other safeguards put in place around her,” Prof Meyer said.

“We have seen multiple high-profile [alleged] domestic homicides over recent years that all had a DVO technically preventing contact between the parties in place. A driven perpetrator isn’t stopped by a piece of paper. The perpetrator needs to be kept visible to be held accountable.

“We know from research and death-review mechanisms that men who ultimately kill an (ex) partner and/or their children tend to be visible to the service system, often across multiple points … However, if risk isn’t identified, shared and monitored collectively, perpetrators of domestic and family violence, including domestic homicide, fly under the radar.

“And victim-survivors are left to manage their own and their children’s safety as best they can.”

It is “imperative”, Dr Fitz-Gibbon agreed, “that we continue to shine a magnifying glass on these systems and ask what can be done to ensure the most effective measures are put in place to support early intervention where possible”.

Ahead of next month’s federal budget, the federal government’s Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin, will convene an emergency roundtable to develop a clear plan on how to bring the number of female murders down, The Australian reported on Friday.

“This is a national crisis. We need to break down the silos and bring people together from across the country to address this complex issue,” Ms Cronin told the broadsheet.

While change is possible, Prof Meyer said, it won’t be “without the whole community taking ownership”.

“Every time yet another woman and/or child is killed in the context of domestic and family violence, many people say ‘enough is enough’ and we call on the same people and governments for action, and in the end the conversation goes quiet again,” she said.

“We need to move away from this belief that (this) happens to someone else, somewhere else, as if there was a parallel universe where this was highly problematic, but not universal.”

It will take “every member” of the Australian community, Dr Fitz-Gibbon said, to play their part to drive down the prevalence of men’s violence against women.

“But it must begin with leadership that recognises and acts in a way that is commensurate with the scale of the problem,” she said.

“As we approach the federal budget next month, the message from the community should be very clear: we need to see women’s safety prioritised, not submarines.”

Originally published as ‘Prioritise women’s safety, not submarines’: Nation’s plea after Molly Ticehurst’s alleged murder