Ruby’s Story: I didn’t want dad jailed, but I was scared he would kill me
For testifying against a man who had bashed and repeatedly raped his own daughter, Serita Ross was attacked with an axe.
Today The Australian publishes the second in a three-part series revealing the effects of family violence in remote communities through the life of 21-year-old Ruby, who lived at Yuendumu in the same house for a time as Kumanjayi Walker, shot dead by police in 2019. It’s a confronting story but one that needs to be told.
Ruby was bloodied, badly bruised and could barely walk when she presented to the Yuendumu medical clinic after what would be the final brutal bashing and attempted rape by her father.
The remote area nurses notified local police, who took the teenager to Alice Springs to provide a formal statement.
Soon after – in January 2018 – Ruby’s father, Dean Wilson, was arrested, charged and taken into custody where he remained until his trial in the Supreme Court at Alice Springs in November 2019.
Ruby, two 13-year-old girls who had witnessed her repeated and protracted assaults, and her aunt Serita Ross all gave evidence.
Terrified of seeing her father, Ruby – then 17 – testified from a vulnerable witness box.
“It was really hard (to give evidence),” she said.
“I couldn’t even face him. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t even want to take a glance at him.”
On Saturday, The Weekend Australian revealed Ruby’s father had brutally bashed and raped her, when she was a teenager, after he was released from prison in September 2017 and moved into the Yuendumu home where she lived with her grandparents.
The 21-year-old this month told The Australian during an interview in far north Queensland – where she now lives – that she hadn’t wanted to send her father back to jail but feared that if he remained free, he would murder her.
“I couldn’t just let him get away with it,” she said.
“I was too scared, like I was really trapped. I couldn’t walk anywhere, not even to the shops or anything, without him coming with me.
“I didn’t want him in jail because he’s my dad and I just got him back but I was just too scared that one day he might kill me or something.”
During his trial, Wilson admitted to much of the physical violence but denied the sexual offending.
“It is likely you had mixed motivations for the physical assaults at the time,” judge Jenny Blokland said during sentencing.
“Overall, you have used what apparent discipline rights you thought you could exercise over your biological daughter to control her, or at least control elements of her lifestyle. There is a substantial deal of irony in your claims about your rights to discipline her, given you had so little to do with her upbringing.”
Speaking about one night when Wilson had assaulted Ruby at Yuendumu, Judge Blokland said the abuse had been protracted, prolonged and involved the use of weapons.
“After a terrifying drive home, you continued the assaults at (Ruby’s) home, compromising her safety and security, much of it in front of the two younger (girls),” she said.
“You showed no mercy when (Ruby) called for help or showed distress.
“The blows were directed to vulnerable parts of her body.
“She was your daughter and could have expected to be protected by you. This was the opposite of protection.”
Judge Blokland said Wilson’s final assault on Ruby, in bushland outside Alice Springs in early 2018, was “in the higher range of aggravated assaults that may be comprehended”.
“The use of the rock and a number of assaults … in an isolated area for the purpose of effecting a rape on your daughter means this must be regarded as a higher end level of assault,” she said.
“In terms of the attempted rape, it was – overall – a violent, indecent, frightening event which took place in an isolated area.
“(Ruby) had to fight you off and threaten to call the police before you would stop.”
Judge Blokland described Ruby as a “well-behaved, well-adapted young person” who – before the assaults – “was a happy girl with lots of friends” and wanted to be an artist or a nurse.
“She feels great shame because you are her father, and you should not have offended against her,” she said.
“She now feels she cannot trust people and feels haunted by all of the circumstances which surrounded the offending and its consequences.”
The Supreme Court judge said Ruby now “feels trapped and feels she cannot go anywhere”.
“She cannot go back to Yuendumu where she grew up, as it no longer feels like home, and she has certain apprehensions about your family as well,” she said.
“Although the attitude of the family cannot be sheeted home to you in sentencing, it is a consequence of the offending that (Ruby) can no longer rely on parts of the extended family due to their mixed loyalties to you.”
Revenge mission
On December 3, 2019 – following his five-day trial – Wilson was found guilty on all six counts of physically and sexually assaulting his daughter, and attempting to rape her.
The next day, his brother Darren Wilson armed himself with an axe and “marched angrily down the main road at Yuendumu” looking for those who had “got my brother locked up”.
Specifically, Darren Wilson sought “payback” against Ruby’s aunt Serita, who had taken the teenager to receive medical treatment and supported her niece in speaking to police.
Serita’s aunt Teresa had also supported Serita and Ruby – telling both of the younger women “not to be afraid and to be strong” – in giving evidence at Dean Wilson’s trial.
So the day after his conviction – December 4, 2019 – Darren Wilson went straight to the Yuendumu Primary School where Serita worked and after finding her in the staff kitchen, kicked down the door and threatened to kill her with the axe.
Axe attack
Before Darren Wilson reached the school, Yuendumu resident Steven Kelly had spotted him storming down the street and yelled out, “Hey, are you all, right?”
“They put my brother in for 20 years,” Wilson shot back. “They told liar stories about him.
“I’m going to the school. I’m going to hit Serita,” he said before lifting his shirt to show Mr Kelly the axe tucked into his pants.
Mr Kelly – knowing Wilson’s violent history – immediately feared for Serita.
When Darren reached the primary school, he spotted the 32-year-old Serita in the breakfast room.
“Stand there. Wait,” he angrily yelled at her.
Terrified, she started banging on the door and begging her colleague – identified in court only as AB – to open it.
She then rushed into the adjoining room and tried to close the door behind her, but Wilson kicked it open.
“I’m going to kill you. You got my brother locked up,” he yelled as he pulled the axe out from under his shirt.
“My brother, he’s in jail. You mob been put him in jail for 20 years,” he accused her.
AB jumped in front of Serita to try to protect her while Wilson repeatedly threatened to kill her.
“I’m going to kill you,” he yelled. “I’m going to kill you right here.”
The 39-year-old – who has a lengthy criminal history for violent offences – then “forcefully swung the axe” over the top of AB and struck Serita on the back of the head with it.
As blood gushed from her wound, she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket to call the police.
Serita – terrified and screaming – then tried to block her face with her arms and mobile phone as Wilson again swung the axe, but this time towards her face.
He smashed her phone and Serita somehow escaped from the room.
Supreme Court documents say Serita “ran for her life” to the primary school’s main office while AB tried to block Wilson from chasing her.
A teacher gave Serita, who could not stop shaking, a towel to stem the bleeding from her head.
She took off her blood-soaked T-shirt and put on a clean one so as to not scare any students who saw her.
Wilson then left the school grounds in search of 62-year-old Teresa.
“Where’s Teresa?” he yelled.
“I’m gonna kill her.”
Serita’s daughter heard about what had happened and phoned Teresa to warn her that Wilson was on his way to her work.
Court documents reveal that Teresa was “frightened for her life”.
She immediately left work, collected her children and grandchildren, took them home and locked all of the doors.
Police arrested Wilson later that day.
After-effects
Court documents reveal Wilson made a “spontaneous admission” to police that he hit Serita on the head with an axe because she had accused his brother of rape.
However, he refused to tell police where the axe was because he was afraid they would obtain his fingerprints from it and charge him with other offences.
In 2020, Wilson pleaded guilty to causing harm to Serita, threatening to kill Teresa and possession of a controlled weapon in a public place.
Serita said, in her first written victim impact statement, that she was “so scared for my life”.
“I thought he was going to kill me for real,” she wrote.
Serita said she still “can’t stop shaking” from the incident and worrying about what would happen to her kids if he killed her.
“I’m scared, if he gets out, he will try to kill me again,” she said.
“He tried to kill me because I gave evidence against his brother, who raped his own daughter.
“He’s blaming me for Dean going to jail.”
In her second victim impact statement, Serita said she had lost a lot of blood and was still experiencing severe pain.
“My head is really sore,” she wrote.
“I have lots of pain when I lay down and the shower stings it.
“It’s paining all the time.”
She said the attack had left her fearful, shocked and unable to return to work.
“I can’t sleep, because I keep thinking, ‘What if he killed me? What would happen to my kids?’,” she wrote.
“I gave evidence to help my niece. I didn’t tell any lies about his brother, Dean.
“His brother did the wrong thing. Not my fault. He should get five years’ jail for trying to kill me.”
Unhealthy pattern
During sentencing judge Judith Kelly said Darren Wilson – who was “clearly a very dangerous person” due to his lengthy criminal history of violent offences – had intended to cause Serita life-threatening injuries or injuries that would be long-standing.
“These offences strike at the very heart of the administration of justice, because the reason that you were trying to seriously injure Serita and the reason you threatened to kill Teresa was because they had given evidence here, in a court of law, in the Supreme Court, under a subpoena,” Justice Kelly said.
“They were obliged to give that evidence and they gave truthful evidence.”
Justice Kelly said the offences were “made more serious” for a number of reasons, including that his victim, Serita, was female.
“This seems to be a pattern with you; assaulting women; a very unhealthy pattern,” she said.
“She is an extended family member of yours. You attacked her while she was at work.
“She was at work in a primary school on a school day. There were little kids around. They should not be exposed to that sort of thing.”
Justice Kelly said Wilson’s attack with a deadly weapon was “determined”.
“You kept going after her. You kicked the door down to get at her. You kept threatening her and you hit at her more than once with the axe,” she said.
“You aimed at a particularly vulnerable part of her body, like her head and face.
“Goodness knows what would have happened if that mobile phone had not got in the way.
“She thought she was going to die.”
Wilson’s threat to kill Teresa was also made more serious by a number of factors, Justice Kelly said.
“It is likely to have the effect of frightening people into not wanting to give evidence in serious sex offence cases against children, and possibly other violent offences as well,” she said.
“The threat to kill is made more serious, obviously, by the fact that you said it with an axe in your hand, after you had just used that axe to attack somebody else.
“And again, that it is that threat to the administration of justice.”
In November 2020, Justice Kelly sentenced Darren Wilson to a total term of imprisonment of 10 years with a non-parole period of five years for his attack on Serita and threat to kill Teresa.
Dean Wilson was sentenced last May to 18 years in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years for abusing his daughter Ruby.
Continuing threats
In an exclusive interview with incoming Alice Springs Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, for a documentary Senator Price is making called Yimi Junga, Serita said she felt safe now that Darren Wilson was locked up, but “his mother wants to fight me”.
“And many other people in his family were threatening to beat me up,” she said
“They are still threatening me at Yuendumu.”
Meanwhile, up in far north Queensland, Ruby’s life has spiralled out of control.
ON TUESDAY: CHAPTER 3
Going north: Ruby tries to start again
