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Robyn Beveridge's Story

My story started when my ex husband was arrested in 2000 for assaulting me (the first reported incident!) and was placed on bail. As a result I had to shift out, and had to go to court to get our farm back, as I was the farmer of the family. The outcome of this was that he was sent to live with my son. While he was being nice to me, he spent a week in a bedroom, sharpening a knife to kill me with, putting 6 years wear on it in one week...

I had many problems with him in the following month. I wrote to his GP, whom I knew he was seeing at the time. The GP and his own lawyer advised him to seek help. This was later confirmed in court evidence. The Police gave him the phone number of Rural Mental Health at my request. He had even told a triage nurse and a receptionist at ChristChurch Hospital that he had tried to kill me. They ignored him...

Then five weeks after his arrest, after meticulous planning and preparation (including false homestay bookings to ensure I was home that night), he trapped me in the house, some 70 kilometres from Christchurch, after cutting the phone line etc, and broke in.

I survived to tell this story, but even the Police don't understand how I did...

The Criminal Court

After numerous delays (this was an exceptionally trying time, as we were a very close family) a trial was finally held some 15 months later. It nearly turned to custard due to the game of law, the withholding of evidence and "technicalities".

I was put on a half hour standby to leave while the trial was on, as the Police suspected that because so much evidence was withheld for technical reasons that he may go free. He had spent 15 months in remand, and they didn't know if he could be held much longer.

During the trial some absolute lies were told, but being credible lies, they threw the Jury into doubt as to my story. The Jury finally let him off four out of eight charges.

The sentencing was some three weeks later, where the Judge said that in fairness to the wife, he feel it appropriate that he advised the Court there was a confession to the crimes, and she was telling the truth. I was totally blown away about this as I knew nothing of it. Evidently it couldn't be used as it "proved" his guilt from day one... and those lawyers and the Judge watched me squirm for one and a half days being called a liar, all the time knowing they had a confession that confirmed the exact same things I was telling them! How those boys sleep at night beats me. The Jury couldn't look me in the face.

At sentencing the Judge said if the Jury had come back with a guilty verdict my ex would have got 17 years without parole. He was convicted of some of the offences, and got 12 years - I believe 8 years before parole, which compared to a lot of recent sentences is more than some get for actual murder.

A man in Christchurch used the same defence - a crime of passion - in the same court with the same lawyers etc. He killed a man and shot his ex wife. He got 9 years jail. That sends a signal to my ex... get out of jail, kill me, and you get less than for just attacking her! Something has got to be done, for some sense, equality and fairness in this ridiculous system that gives criminals more rights than their victims.

The legal system needs changing - the High Court nearly destroyed me. A pathologist, a police doctor, a photographer, and an electrician all described what had happened to me in the first incident, and yet the Jury let him off four of the eight charges! Something is very very wrong with the Jury system if a truly guilty man can get away with these crimes!

Two years after the attack, after a horrendous wait, his appeal (why was he allowed one?) was thrown out. I found out about it on the radio news - no one thought to tell me.

There also have been incidents since the trial, but a lot of that is still to be kept secret at this stage. I am in year three of this saga at the moment.

Well that's part of my story. I can not bear to think of anyone else going through what I have been through, but it happens and will happen, over and over again. At this stage I seriously wonder if reporting these crimes is worth the trauma and cost. Meanwhile, the lawyers, judges, and courts continue to make money!

Where do I start to do something about this???

My life has been totally destroyed by these events. The only people who have kept me going are my cops. I cannot express enough thanks to them for looking after me. Three and a half years later, and they all keep in touch, even though many have "perfed" due to the pressures of the job. Most others in my world have left me, even the banks won't touch me now, as my ex is a crim!

And what was my crime - reporting domestic violence! Which of us gets the longer sentence? My ex gets 8-12 years - I get to be frightened until one of us dies. I doubt the psych people or the justice system will help me with this....

The next question is, what will happen to me in 2008 when and if he is paroled? I do not have enough cash and resources to start again elsewhere, something which would not be feasible at my age anyway.

Robyn Beveridge

Offender details can be found here. More in an interview with the victim from TV3's 20/20 programme