AVO

It has to be one of the worst feelings knowing that the person you are going to court to take an AVO out against may walk by or even stroll into the coffee shop you are waiting in at any time, you feel so very vulnerable and every time you see a car similar to his or a person of the same build your heart starts racing and you feel a sense of dread wash over you wondering if this will be the moment that a conflict occurs.

I felt very anxious walking up to the court house with my Councillor this morning, I could feel the nerves as I sat my bags and umbrella in the box on the conveyor and walked through the metal detector.

I almost felt like a hostage that escaped from someone and had to watch her every move and be vigilant at all times, Sitting in the Women's Safety Room only emphasized the hostage like feelings, it was a small room down a corridor, with limited facilities, isolated from everything outside. Don't get me wrong I am grateful for it's existence but at times I felt like a criminal. Not because of anything that was said or done but because the victims were being made to sit in a room isolated albeit for protection, while the perpetrator is able to move around freely.

It ended well with an Interim AVO being granted and a date set for the Hearing at which I will have to give evidence and beforehand revise my statement to reflect the situation from past to present in great detail.

I think there is much work to do on the system, there are too many grey area's in regards to Domestic Violence and I think that the Psychological and Emotional aspects of the abuse need to get more recognition as this is where it starts usually before escalating to Physical Violence. There is a distinct lack of severe consequence for perpetrators of Domestic Violence, and the process to prosecute these perpetrators is so involved and time consuming not to mention emotionally draining that it puts victims off, not to mention when mistakes occur and you then in turn need to reapply and go through the whole process of waiting again, the way it works now you have to be really determined to continue.

That is all from me tonight

LLR xoxo