A violent and brutal chapter in the 1980s known collectively as the Family Court murders and bombings ranks as one of Australia’s most notorious and least understood true crime sagas.
And it’s the subject of a new four-part documentary series, airing on Ten from this Wednesday.
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Extract: ‘Chief Detective Inspector Pamela Young began her policing career in the 1980s as a probationary constable. Part of a new recruitment process to up female police numbers, Pamela’s first job was as one of the number of patrol officers stationed on 24-hr security outside the judges’ homes as part of the state’s ramped up response to the crimes …’
I wonder if this programme acknowledges one of the most horrible truths underlying this episode of Australian history – namely the hypocrisy embedded in the official police and judicial response? What happened? Judges – yes judges – were given total security to the highest degree possible. Yet the women who went to the Family Court saying they were victim/survivors of criminal assault at home were so often – possibly/probably most often – disbelieved, treated as liars, considered to be ‘making it all up’. Yet the men about whom those women were ‘making it all up’ were men who were seen as a threat to – yes, the judiciary. So the judges and police took it seriously when judges’ lives were threatened, but not so when it was women’s lives which were not only threatened, but which were being pounded and beaten and abused and sought to be annihilated by the very men whom the judges and police considered to be legitimate threats against judicial lives. Did women get security? Never in a million years. Far from it. The women continued to be at risk, whilst the security and police attention was directed all to protection of the judiciary, and the judges – yes, the judges – were focused on their own lives and wellbeing and health and security. What price a woman’s life.