A week after thousands of people took to the streets to protest violence against women, the father of a young woman brutally murdered almost five years ago has called for changes to the “chaotic” criminal justice system.
Twenty-eight women have been violently murdered since the beginning of the year, according to data from the advocacy group Destroy the Joint’s Counting Dead Women project.
John Herron’s daughter Courtney was murdered in 2019 in Melbourne’s Royal Park by Henry Hammond, who beat her to death with a branch for 50 minutes in the early hours of Saturday, May 25.
He dragged Mrs Herron’s body to a clearing, covered her with leaves and a tree branch and placed a large piece of cement on her face.
Ms Herron’s body was found by dog walkers a few hours later.
She was only 25 years old at the time.
John Herron criticized politicians for their lack of action to prevent violence against women
Hammond was found not guilty of murder because he had schizophrenia at the time he killed Herron.
Instead, he was ordered to serve a 25-year custodial supervision order in a psychiatric facility.
On Friday, Herron, who works as a rural lawyer and helps victims of domestic violence and their families, criticized politicians for their lack of action to prevent violence against women.
He said a number of changes were needed to the criminal justice system, including legal reform, support for victims, stricter bail laws and the administration of intervention orders.
“The system is chaotic, it is on the verge of collapse,” Herron said.
“It’s not doing what it’s supposed to do to protect women.”
Herron said people often abused intervention orders, so police and magistrates were inundated with “frivolous or minor intervention orders”.
In her experience, she said frivolous orders were sometimes given by an alleged perpetrator of domestic violence against a victim.
“It’s very common for these women to be absolutely baffled that the abuser or perpetrator could have orders over them,” she said.
Herron called for stricter bail laws and said that in most cases where a woman was murdered, the perpetrators had previously been brought to the attention of authorities.
Her daughter’s attacker, Hammond, was on a community corrections order at the time he killed Ms Herron.
Courtney Herron was murdered in 2019 in Melbourne’s Royal Park by Henry Hammond, who beat her to death with a branch. She was 25 years old at the time.
Courtney’s killer, Henry Hammond, was on a community corrections order at the time he killed her.
Herron said the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of her daughter’s death was an “emotional time.”
“With people in my situation, anniversaries really affect you a lot,” he said.
“When you think about your daughter every day, that just makes you understand.”
Herron said her daughter’s birthday had recently passed.
“She would have been 30 years old,” he said.
“There’s no turning back time, you just won’t be able to see them anymore.”
Herron said he would continue to fight for justice and help others.
‘I have to move on because who else is going to talk?’
“I help other people because they don’t have any help.”
Herron’s comments come after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared violence against women a “national crisis.”
The government announced this week it would invest $925 million over five years to help women escape violent relationships and introduce new legislation to ban deepfake pornography as part of a suite of measures in a bid to combat gender-based violence. .
