The shocking statistic no Australian should accept

The scourge of domestic violence continues to destroy lives around the country despite the enormous focus and funding that has been devoted to ending this often deadly malaise.

Former AFL player Shannon Grant. Picture: AAP

The scourge of domestic violence continues to destroy lives around the country despite the enormous focus and funding that has been devoted to ending this often deadly malaise.

On average, one woman a week is murdered by a current or former partner. Then there are the thousands of women who are long-term victims of violence; most suffer in silence in abusive relationships, never making a formal complaint, while others bravely subject themselves to the justice system only to be let down all over again.

It is demoralising for victims of violence to see cases that are successfully prosecuted in the courts result in the abuser walking away with a pitifully inadequate punishment.

The message sent to victims is, why bother?

Why go through the harrowing process to see your abuser get what amounts to a slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf.

Mostly these cases go unreported but in the past couple of years there have been a number of high-profile cases involving former sportsmen that have hit the headlines.

There was former Port Adelaide and Carlton player Nick Stevens, who was sentenced to eight months for terrorising and repeatedly bashing his former partner, Laima McKenna. He appealed and, to the disgust of domestic violence groups, the sentence was reduced to six months, with three months suspended.

Last year, former Carlton, Richmond, Geelong and Essendon player Justin Murphy, who had a criminal record, was sentenced to a pitifully lenient six-month term for a campaign of harassment, stalking and threats against his former partner Jill Scott — culminating in a blowtorch attack in which the victim suffered burns so severe that she lost a finger.

Six months for physically and psychologically scarring a woman seems an utterly absurd penalty.

The latest case involves former North Melbourne great Shannon Grant who somehow escaped with a $1200 fine from a Queensland court after assaulting his former partner, Shannan Thomas.

Grant was already on a two-year Community Corrections Order that was imposed after he successfully appealed against a six-month jail term over three separate attacks against Thomas, including picking her up and throwing her against a fence, throwing a beer bottle at her head, choking her and stamping on her bare foot and dragging her by the hair across the floor. 

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