Melbourne CBD shooting victim fights to stop violence against women

IT HAS been a long, lonely road back for Melbourne CBD shooting victim Kaera Douglas as she rebuilds her life.

KAERA Douglas says it has been a long, lonely road back after the CBD shooting that shocked Melbourne.

And she says she will always be grateful to good Samaritan Brendan Keilar, as she fights to stop violence against women.

“When my world came crashing down, people tried to help me as much as they could,” she said.

“But because my situation was so different to anything people knew about, I didn’t find anything or anyone that I could relate to or identify with.

“That made it a long, lonely dark road back to have to walk alone.

“My wish is that no young girl should ever have to walk that dark road alone again like I did.”

Brendan Keilar was shot by Christopher Wayne Hudson after intervening in a dispute on William St on the morning of June 18, 2007.

Kaera Douglas was in a coma for three days after the incident.

Ms Douglas, has battled alcohol, anorexia, depression since that shooting, which happened 10 years ago on June 18, 2007.

She has revealed that she still suffers from survivors guilt and was writing a book about her experience.

Her ex-boyfriend Hells Angels bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson was pulling Ms Douglas by the hair towards a taxi on William Street on June 18, 2007, when Mr Keilar intervened.

Hudson turned a gun on the father of three, shooting him dead, and he critically wounded another good Samaritan Danish backpacker, Paul de Waard.

He also shot Ms Douglas, who lost a kidney. She was left in a coma for days.

Ms Douglas thinks of Mr Keilar regularly, and his final act of kindness which saved her life.

“She’s always grateful to him and what he did for her,” said Ms Douglas’ mentor, Jane Ashton, sister to Julie Ramage who was killed by her husband in 2003.

Ms Douglas reached out to Ms Ashton to help her deal with her grief.

She described Ms Douglas as a courageous young woman who became trapped in Melbourne’s dangerous bikie culture.

“I will always admire her because she is someone who is bright, bubbly, intelligent and, after all she went through, she came out wiser but her optimistic personality hasn’t changed,” Ms Ashton said.

“Kara became ensnared in a (bikie) culture that had been around for 50 or 60 years before she arrived on the scene. She tried to get herself out of it and didn’t know where to go and where to get help and lucky she didn’t get killed.

“When someone is in that situation, you do anything possible to survive, because you know these people are violent.

“These are often women who have to be sent interstate, not ones that can be sent to a refuge and get on with their life.”

Kaera Douglas representing White Ribbon at Highpoint. Source: Instagram

Hudson was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years imprisonment for the crime.

He exploded into a fit of rage and brutally beat an exotic dancer outside King Street club Bar Code on the morning of the shooting.

He unleashed on the woman, punching and kicking her before leaving her unconscious in a pool of her own blood.

Ms Douglas tried to assist the battered woman — but soon found herself Hudsons’ next victim.

She tried to escape him but he shot her once in the stomach at point blank range, and fired several rounds into Mr Keilar, 43, and Mr de Waard, 26, after they rushed to help the terrified woman.

Ms Douglas was put in a coma and lost her kidney.

Emergency surgery managed to save Mr de Waard, but Mr Keilar, an esteemed property solicitor, died at the scene on the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane, leaving behind his loving wife and children.

Kara Douglas was almost killed when Hell's Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson shot her during a 2007 rampage that claimed the life of lawyer Brendan Keilar. Picture: Supplied

Ms Douglas, now 34, has been trying to move on from the brutal shooting that mentally and physically changed her forever.

Now a keen advocate against men’s violence toward women, Ms Douglas will pen her truly horrific brush with death and violence in an autobiography.

The yet to be completed book will detail her struggle to overcome ‘survivor’s guilt’ delve into why she now lives by the motto: “Love many, trust few.”

But she has been rebuilding her life and helps other women who find themselves in similarly violent situations.

She volunteers for the White Ribbon Foundation, and has been studying. She also owns her own subcontracting business, A Lady and Some Tradies, which encourages women to break into the male-dominated trade industry.

If you are in danger, call 000. To seek advice on domestic violence matters, call 1800 RESPECT.