Three months before James Gargasoulas would kill six people in Melbourne’s Bourke Street mall, he punched his girlfriend, who was 19 weeks pregnant, repeatedly in the face.
Just over two years before the Bourke Street mall terror attack, a man walked into a cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place.
But Monis wasn’t just any potential customer, walking in off the street. He had been charged with 43 counts of sexual assault. He had a history of domestic violence. He was accused of conspiring to murder his own wife.
But it’s not only the Bourke Street rampage and the Lindt cafe siege that point to a disturbing link between domestic violence and terrorism.
There’s the London Bridge attacks.
The attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices.
The Manchester bombing.
The Pulse nightclub shooting.
The Parkland massacre.
The Sandy Hook shooting.
All instances where the perpetrator had a history (or alleged history) of violence against women. All instances where these men were nonetheless free to walk into schools, nightclubs, concerts and other public spaces, and commit acts of unimaginable evil.
Source: If we took domestic violence seriously, Bourke St wouldn’t have happened.