‘Destroying men’s lives’: Grieving mum lobbies Attorney-General over male victims of crime

“They need to be held accountable because they’re destroying men’s lives.” A grieving mother says she won’t give up campaigning for male victims of crime. HER STORY >>

• Woman convicted over fatal Launceston crash walks free
• Melissa Oates convicted of two more offences against now-deceased boyfriend Jari Wise
• Jari Wise’s grieving mother fights for changes to help recognise male victims

GRIEVING mother Faith Tkalac has pledged to stand in silent protest each day outside the Attorney-General’s office.

She says she won’t rest until Tasmania’s justice system makes changes in how it deals with male victims of crime at the hands of female perpetrators.

Ms Tkalac says women are often not held accountable for their destructive actions against men - and that men are not believed when they come forward.

Ms Tkalac’s son Jari Wise was killed on February 28 last year after he was run down at Huonville by a car driven by his on-again, off-again partner Melissa Oates - who was subsequently jailed for eight months.

Already stricken by grief, Ms Tkalac said she struggled to sleep on Tuesday night after Lalla woman Elizabeth Anne Quill avoided a custodial term for causing the road death of Jayden John Pearce.

“This is all too much,” Ms Tkalac said as she waited outside Elise Archer’s Moonah office.

“I know how that family would have felt when they woke up this morning.

“I decided last night at 10 o’clock that I’m just going to come back every day.”

Ms Tkalac said she has tabled a petition with parliament to create “Jari’s law” - establishing mandatory jail terms for women who make false allegations about men.

While that goal isn’t directly related to the deaths of Mr Wise or Mr Pearce, Ms Tkalac said change was vitally needed to help men who suffered crimes and false accusations.

“Women are just automatically believed,” she said.

“They need to be held accountable because they’re destroying men’s lives.”

Ms Tkalac turned up at the Attorney-General’s office at 9am on Wednesday in the hopes her concerns would be heard.

She said during her first day of the silent protest, she’d been inundated with support from passers-by and men approaching her to share their stories.

Faith Tkalac, whose son Jari Wise died last year, conducts a silent protest outsude Attorney General Elise Archer's electoral to highlight the plight of male victims of crime. Picture Nikki Davis-Jones

Oates, 35, was jailed in April after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court of Tasmania to dangerous driving, drink driving, and failing to stop and assist in an accident.

She was subsequently jailed for a month by the Hobart Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to two more offences against Mr Wise - common assault and injuring property.

The death of Mr Wise, 26-year-old a father-of-two, has shattered the Huon Valley community.

Quill, 36, was this week found guilty of negligent driving causing death over the 2018 Christmas Day car crash that killed Mr Pearce.

Mr Pearce’s family and friends have expressed distress and anger that Quill was given a suspended sentence.

Attorney-General Elise Archer expressed her condolences to Ms Tkalac on the loss of Mr Wise.

“I am willing to meet with her to discuss her concerns, and I have reached out to facilitate this,” she said.

“However, I do need to highlight that the Director of Public Prosecutions and the courts operate independently of government and free from political influence, as they should.”

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