Preview above: Insight talks to women who have killed violent men. Full ep. on Tuesday, March 10, 8:30pm on SBS and On Demand.
Above Jonda Stephen’s right eye is a deep scar, she says is a permanent reminder of the night her ex-partner was hitting her with an iron.
"I was sitting outside and I've come in and he's got my laptop…and I asked him what he was going to do with it,” Jonda recalls. “He said he was going to smash it and I can remember grabbing the laptop and then he started hitting me in the head with an iron.”
With blood dripping down her face, Jonda spotted something in the corner of her eye. “I’ve seen a knife that I'd used earlier in the day and I've grabbed the knife and because there was blood coming down my face and I just stabbed him,” she says.
Jonda then rang triple zero but her ex-partner died a short time later. The relationship began a year earlier and after they moved in with each other, the abuse started.
“Punching me or strangling me, he did that a lot, he'd tied me up and….[left] me in the laundry for hours,” she says.
Despite the history of violence, Jonda was charged with murder. “I carried that charge for like nearly three years I think and it was terrible,” she says.
It was always self-defence ... It was one of clearest cases I’ve ever seen in my 30 of legal practice.
Jonda was eventually acquitted of both murder and manslaughter but her lawyer says the case should never have gone to trial.
“It was always self-defence,” says Jonda’s lawyer Pauline Wright. “It was one of clearest cases I’ve ever seen in my 30 of legal practice.”
Jodie Gore also has scars on her body after years of violence inflicted by her former partner. “It’s all on my face.... and also got stab mark here with the scissors,” Jodie says as she points to her chest. “All of the king hits and he used to…drag me by the hair.”
Jodie ended the relationship after 14 years but continued to care for her ex-partner who suffered from a mental illness.
On a Saturday afternoon in June 2015, she went to a party and was playing cards when he turned up and stole money from Jodie. They had both been drinking and started arguing. He then began punching Jodie and she punched him back.
Jodie says, after years of violence, she thought her ex-partner might kill her with a rock so she went to her bag and got a knife.
“I feared for my life and fear came upon me so I got the knife and stabbed him because I was thinking round two that he's going to attack me, flog me, bash me, I'll be dead,” Jodie says.
Jodie was charged with murder and despite details of the violence being heard in court, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years.
“He had no right laying hands on me. Because I was busted, I was beaten black and blue, I had two black eyes and swollen face,” Jodie says.
Four years into her sentence, the Western Australian Attorney General made the rare decision to release Jodie early, citing the history of domestic violence.
Some legal experts say these two cases show how the justice system is failing women who kill violent men.
“Juries don't necessarily know very much about family violence and they may say…why didn't she leave?” says former Victorian Appeal Court Judge Marica Neave.
Chair of Victoria’s Royal Commission into family violence, Professor Neave says it’s not so much the law that is failing women but rather myths and misconceptions still held within the court system.
“Most women who kill do use a weapon and they use a weapon because in many, many cases they're much smaller and not as strong as the man who's threatening them,” she says.
“Use of a knife …has been used in the past to say well, that was a disproportionate response.”
Often women find it hard to raise self-defence and are instead pleading guilty to manslaughter.
“It is improving but still have a long way to go,” she says.
If you, or someone you know, needs help you can call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
