The alleged domestic violence murder of Ashleigh Grice in September 2025 brought hundreds of people together to grieve and to question how this could have happened in our community. Yet it is happening every day.
As we come to the end of the campaign ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence’ on Wednesday, 10 December 18 people were charged with domestic violence (DV) related offences in the Tweed-Byron Police district in the last week (see page 10) and in our community there has been yet another convicted violent offender allowed to remain free in his local community.
Multiple women had stories about the perpetrator, but only one finally had the strength to keep stepping forward and have her claims tested in court. The man was found guilty on three charges: one count of grievous bodily harm, one count of common assault, and one count of malicious damage. He will serve a two-year community corrections order, no jail.
For women and men who have been the victims of domestic violence the challenge of standing strong and pushing through to ensure that perpetrators are held to account is incredibly difficult. It takes courage, it takes support, and it takes grit and they still have to live with the fear of repercussions.
I once had to provide evidence in a sexual assault case. I was not the victim, I was never threatened, yet I still had to face the fear of repercussions. The fear that one day, when that person got out of jail they might come and find me, my children, they might seek revenge. It is no small feat to take a stand against someone who you know is willing to perpetrate violence against others. It is understandable why many women chose not to.
In this community, where the convicted man remains free to live and work, the woman who was the victim still has to see this person when they go shopping, on their way to work, if they go out, and that takes courage.
What this woman has done is be brave enough to take a stand. What we as a community need to ask ourselves is not how did this happen, but how are we going to create better communities? How are we going to raise our children to be better people that can break cycles of violence? How do we all make better choices to support one another and create accountability?
On page 11 Pancho Symes has written about the challenges that young men face as they come to grips with the idea of masculinity and the impacts of social media; the challenge for us is how do we create a safer community here, every day, for every woman, man, and child?
Aslan Shand, editor
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