A man has been charged with murder after a woman was stabbed to death outside a hotel in Darwin on Friday. She is the fourth woman to be killed in 10 days in Australia.
The 51-year-old woman, who is yet to be identified, was allegedly stabbed with a knife outside the Doubletree Hilton on the Esplanade, according to Northern Territory Police.
She ran into the foyer seeking help and emergency services were called to the hotel just before 6pm.
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and her staff were in the hotel foyer when the woman ran into the building, per the Sydney Morning Herald. Some of Burney’s staff, along with hotel staff, helped the woman while the federal cabinet minister comforted her family.
The woman was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital with life-threatening injuries, but she died a short time later.
NT Police said a 56-year-old man, believed to be the woman’s partner, was arrested on Saturday and charged with murder. He is due to appear in court on Monday.
Four women have been killed in violent circumstances in Australia in the last 10 days.
About 11.30pm on Easter Sunday, 42-year-old Erin Gilbert was found in her Merrylands apartment in Sydney with “very serious and severe” injuries by her 38-year-old husband Nic Gilbert. Police are still searching for her killer.
Hours before Erin’s body was discovered, 59-year-old Sydney woman Lisa Fenwick was found with multiple stab wounds in a Mascot apartment. Her 61-year-old partner Anthony Eriksen was arrested and charged with her murder.
On April 5, 41-year-old Melbourne woman Hannah Pringle was found seriously injured at her home in Abbotsford. Her 15-year-old son and his 14-year-old friend were charged with her murder the next day.
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According to femicide researcher and journalist Sherele Moody, 17 women have been killed in Australia in 2023. We are only 15 weeks into the year.
Jacqui Purton, a 37-year-old mum-of-four from Tasmania, was mowed down by a car at a rural property in Campania on March 13. A 38-year-old man was charged with her murder, who police say was known to her.
Several days earlier, on March 9, 56-year-old Queensland woman Margz Smetheram was found dead at a home in Kallangur. Her 36-year-old son, Leonard Smetheram, was charged with her murder that night.
Four women lost their lives in violent circumstances in February.
Anastasia Slastion was allegedly murdered by her 28-year-old partner Isaac Costa at a home in Sydney.
Janet Guthrie, a 51-year-old mother-of-two, was allegedly murdered by her 47-year-old partner Ramah Manning at her home outside of Brisbane.
Sally Davis killed her 61-year-old mother Trish Lambourne before setting their house in Adelaide alight, as reported by the ABC.
And 19-year-old Krystle Monks died at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital after reportedly suffering critical head injuries. Five days later, her 21-year-old boyfriend Michael Pringle was charged with her murder.
The list goes on; Gold Coast woman Wendy Sleeman was found in the boot of a car in Brisbane on January 27, days after being reported missing. Her 30-year-old son, Slade Murdok, was charged with her murder, as well as one count each of unlawful stalking, burglary, assault occasioning bodily harm, kidnapping, attempted arson and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
Fifty-three-year-old Maria Williams, an advocate for the homeless who gave evidence at a parliamentary inquiry last year, died after she was allegedly assaulted in Perth’s CBD on January 23. She was a proud Noongar elder, mother and grandmother.
The partner of 28-year-old Dayna Isaac was charged with murder after her body was found in a Western Sydney unit on January 16.
On January 4, 66-year-old Robert Karl Huber was charged with the murder of 64-year-old Lindy Lucena after her body was found with “significant head trauma” in an alleyway in Ballina in northern New South Wales.
Angie Fuller has been missing since January 9. The 30-year-old mother-of-two was last seen on the Tanami Road, about 15km west of the Stuart Highway in Alice Springs. Fifteen days after her disappearance, NT Police announced the case was being treated as a homicide investigation.
Two months on, and no arrests have been made.
Last October, the federal government released a national plan to end violence against women and children over the next 10 years.
According to Counting Dead Women, a project run by Destroy The Joint which is designed to be a national record of femicide, 18 women died in 2022 after the national plan was announced.
I know change can’t happen overnight, but it must be asked — what is our government doing to prevent the deaths of women now? We don’t have 10 years for violence against women and children to end.
More women will be killed in the coming weeks, if not days.
More people will be forced to live with the trauma of losing their mother, sister, aunt, cousin, grandmother or friend at the hands of men, or in violent circumstances, for the rest of their lives.
I will continue to cry with every article I write or read, and mourn the cruel, senseless death of a woman whose life was stolen.
I love my job, but the most distressing part of it is reporting on these deaths knowing there will be more. It feels like I’m screaming in a room full of people but no one is listening.
May is Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month, and I know our leaders will release statements saying violence against women and children is inexcusable and won’t be tolerated.
But until they do something to stop this worsening crisis, they can keep their empty words.
Help is available.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
If you’d like to speak to someone about domestic violence and violence against women, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
If you’re in distress, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online.
You can also get in touch with Headspace Yarn Safe online.
Or you can speak with your NACCHO community health service – find your local member online.
