Machetes, guns, ‘fed to the crocs’: Shocking new domestic violence reality

Women are being abused with machetes, guns and suffering threats of being “cut up and fed to crocodiles” as rates of domestic violence climb to “crisis” levels. WARNING: GRAPHIC.

Queensland women are being abused with machetes, guns and suffering threats of being “cut up and fed to crocodiles” as rates of domestic violence climb to “crisis” levels.

Leaders at Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service and Women’s Centre FNQ, which between them supported 5000 people over 12 months, say both the prevalence and severity of DV has increased by a shocking amount, while the age of women attending its services has dropped.

It comes as breaches of domestic violence orders in the Far North QPS region totalled more than 7800, a record high, in the 12 months prior to August, a 21 per cent increase on the preceding 12-month period.

Womens Centre FNQ manager Nicole Dye said attendance at her Cairns clinic had increased by 20 per cent compared to FY 2021/22, and admittance at her Atherton women’s shelter had increased by 10 per cent.

Cairns Women’s Centre manager Nicole Dye. Picture: Brendan Radke

“We’re seeing greater complexities in the types and severity of violence. Guns and machetes are involved much more now than they’ve ever been,” Ms Dye said.

“The level of younger women presenting is very alarming, women as young as 16.

“The levels of sexual violence, the intensity of sexual violence, the levels of strangulation are really shocking.

“We’re absolutely at crisis levels.”

Ms Dye said DV was the primary driver of homelessness in the region, resulting in terrible economic ramifications for the community as women were being kept out of work, and children out of school, to escape abusive households.

“The shortage of accommodation is adding to the complexity. We don’t have anywhere to refer them to and often they don’t have anywhere to go,” she said.

“We’re never going to solve homelessness until we solve DV.”

Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service CEO Sandra Keogh has also witnessed abhorrent DV outcomes at her Cairns City clinic.

Both men and women access her service – she said women constituted about 95 per cent of attendances.

Sandra Keogh, CEO of Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service. Picture: Nuno Avendano

“We’ve seen people who’ve been beaten with pieces of wood, with a broom,” Ms Keogh said.

“Threats with spearguns, that’s not uncommon. We’ve heard of threats to be cut up and fed to crocodiles. We’ve had women who have been tied up, beaten and sexually assaulted.

“Taking videos without consent – we have dealt with women who have been drugged and sexually assaulted by their partner, which has been taped and has become a threat.

“We deal with this stuff all of the time.”

Ms Keogh said strangulation inside and outside the bedroom was very common – women had attended her clinic who had been held against walls by forearms or put in headlocks.

She said strangulation with hands often did not leave marks visible enough to telegraph an assault, but damage was invariably caused by restricting blood flow to the brain.

She also said the prevalence of strangulation in mainstream porn could be linked to the prevalence of choking as a “must try” sexual act, but she said women had often been pressured into consenting.

A record amount of DVO breaches in the Far North have been recorded in the 12 months prior to August 2023. Picture: File photo

“Women are not necessarily consenting to it, but they don’t feel safe enough to say no,” she said.

“We’re seeing cases where women aren’t being allowed to sleep until they have sex with their partner, otherwise there are repercussions.”

Ms Keogh said relevant government agencies and support services were at their limits.

“Our government systems – housing, Child Safety, even QPS – are overwhelmed. We’re all holding out on some level and do what we can to keep people safe,” she said.

“If we can’t get people into shelter or safe accommodation, then we’re motelling people. But we can’t afford to motel people for indefinite time periods.”

Ms Keogh said greater resources and funding were required if governments were going to meet their national target of ending DV by 2032.

“The sooner you can get a worker in front of a survivor, the better the engagement,” she said.

“What we need to see, without taking away from services like ours, is investment in services that work with people using the violence.

“Police are committed to gathering the evidence and prosecuting. Local police leadership want to do very good work in this space.”

A common rebuttal to DV reporting has been that men have become ignored victims.

Ms Keogh said male victims of DV were treated equally.

“Overwhelmingly it’s a certain kind of man using violence. That doesn’t mean men can’t be victims, too … we don’t ever want to dismiss that experience,” she said.

“A man is far more likely to be assaulted by a male relative or someone on the street than they are an intimate partner. About five per cent of male victims of violence are at the hands of a female partner.

“But overwhelmingly the victims of DV are women and children ... and that’s borne out by research time and time again.”

If this story has raised any issue for you or someone close to you, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the National Domestic Violence Counselling Service on 1800 737 732, Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service on 07 4033 6100 or Women’s Shelter FNQ on 07 4051 9366.

Originally published as Machetes, guns, ‘fed to the crocs’: Shocking new domestic violence reality