Story on ABC: Brisbane car fire killer stalked wife Hannah Clarke and used 'scary' controlling tactics before final evil act

I don't know where to begin with this story. It's horrific - and that's an understatement. I can't begin to imagine what Hannah and her three kids were going through in those final moments before they succumbed to the fatal torture inflicted upon them.

Domestic violence is an epidemic in our society that doesn't appear to be reducing in fatal incidents. I don't have the stats handy but it feels like its not getting any better!

I was close to a case that occurred with a female mining operator who worked at Cannington when I was the mine manager. The short story is that her ex-boyfriend killed her in a fit of rage after a photo taken from Facebook was sent to him by a mate, of her at the local races with her new boyfriend. I won't go into the details - like Hannah's story, it was horrific.

I know domestic violence has always been around. And I know it's not always the female partners being abused (but they are by far the majority). But we need to find a way to brake the back of this scourge. It's not a political issue to solve (although they have a part to play - see below), it's a societal issue. It will take bravery and courage.

No one willingly goes into a relationship with the prospect of being abused. So how do we create the intervention required to stop it and save the person's life when it begins to occur?

If I think about the other scourge of significant relevance - mental illness, I believe there's numerous similarities. There's something or things that are out of step with the person or relationship, there doesn't appear to be a solution or way out, and the result is a person being harmed (physically, mentally or both).

The silver lining, albeit a very faint one, is that the taboo with mental illness is being lifted. There is significant effort and resources being created and implemented to deal with it, at various levels. Domestic violence needs the same level of effort and visibility. As a starting point, governments at all levels need a clear strategy. How do we address this? From there is a requirement for society accountability. We need to create a culture of care and compassion. I considered this completely lost from our culture until the recent devastating bushfires in multiple states. It exists. We just need to work out how to make it something we practice daily and not wait for a catastrophic event.

If we can raise the societal awareness on domestic violence to the point of it being a daily topic of conversation we may just start to make inroads into eliminating it. It's a significant challenge - one that too many women (and some men) are at risk if we don't confront it.

So let's do out part! Raise it when we become aware of it. Offer support where we can. Be our brother or sister's keeper and show care and compassion. Don't wait for it to become a headline on the morning news - like Hannah and her beautiful children were.

And finally, God bless Hannah and her children, and those victims of abuse who have, or are suffering from domestic violence. If they can't have peace in this life, may they have it in the next....

Hannah Clarke story