Rae Harvey feels a sickness in her stomach with every news report about a woman dead at the hands of a man.
It plunges the mother back more than 30 years, when her daughter, Leanne Harvey Ford, was brutally murdered by her partner.
"We'll always be affected by it, always think about it," she said.
Mrs Harvey has also lived those years knowing Ross William Arrowsmith was given a non-parole period of just six-and-a-half-years for fatally bashing a 25-year-old Leanne with an enamel kettle.
So, when the mother saw a serial domestic violence abuser leave court after time served with a community-based order and a $400 fine last week, she wrote to The Canberra Times, like many times before, to express her anger.
"Every day almost we hear of young women being murdered and we see cases like the one above, where violent men are released into the community," she wrote.
"Canberra is well known for the lenient sentences given to criminals ... how can we make changes to stop the murdering if even the judges don't acknowledge the horror of the crime."
According to Counting Dead Women Australia, 31 women have already been killed by violence in this country in 2024.
"Every time another young woman is murdered, it all comes back," Mrs Harvey said.
"I think about that family and what they are going through."
'If I'm not home, come looking for me'
"I'm a little bit worried actually, if I'm not home when you get home come looking for me," Leanne told her brother on July 22, 1993, before going to her partner's house to end their relationship.
Her brother didn't take real notice of those words, which he later described to police as being said "in a joking sort of manner".
Precise details about what took place that night remain unknown, with Arrowsmith claiming he couldn't remember anything from the murder and doctors later describing his amnesia as genuine.
But what is certain is he killed Leanne, wrapped her body up in "the best sleeping bag", cleaned his house, moved her to her home, sat down next to her in bed, and unsuccessfully tried to end his own life.
That suicide attempt would later be described by an appeal court as a form of remorse.
"Why can't women say no and end relationships without having to be murdered?" Mrs Harvey asked.
A devastating appeal
The mother found it difficult to accept Arrowsmith's initial 16-year head sentence and nine-year non-parole period after the man unsuccessfully fought the murder charge in an ACT Supreme Court trial.
"We knew we couldn't expect much more from the ACT system," she said.
She was devastated when that sentence was then reduced to 14 years, with a six-and-a-half-year non-parole period, on appeal.
Her disbelief remains.
A full bench of judges ruled Arrowsmith's initial sentence had failed to adequately recognise his disabilities resulting from the suicide attempt, previous good character, vulnerability, and purported remorse.
"There was absolutely no remorse whatsoever," Mrs Harvey said.
"Him and his family have never ever said, 'We're sorry for what happened with Leanne', and they never spoke a word to us."
Arrowsmith's lawyers also tried to argue provocation.
In January 1995, a 22-year-old woman wrote to this newspaper's editor in dismay over the leniency afforded to the murderer.
"Arrowsmith's appeal is frightening proof of the failure of the legal system to provide adequate punishment for violence against women and indeed the community at large," that woman wrote.
'Exemplary character'
"She was such a happy person. She never stopped talking. She loved everybody. She was a wonderful family girl," Mrs Harvey said, when asked about Leanne.
But she never had the chance to say those words to a court which refused her victim impact statement. She accepted that had thankfully since changed.
"That's one good thing," she said.
But what hasn't changed is the court factoring in character references supporting offenders who successfully hide their violence from others or are otherwise highly regarded in their community.
"It is beyond question that at the time of the killing the appellant was a person of exemplary character," Arrowsmith's appeal judgment said.
The killer had no criminal history and it appears that to everyone who knew him, including Mrs Harvey, he had shown no real signs of what was to come.
Mrs Harvey said: "I remember that it was horrible having to hear them all say really good things about him and what a great person he was."
You could understand then, why the mother believes courts focus more on the perpetrators of violence than their victims.
'Nothing's changed'
One of the judges who slashed Arrowsmith's sentence invited Mrs Harvey into his chambers, where she said he admitted he wouldn't be happy with the outcome had one of his daughters been murdered.
"It makes me so angry that Justice [John] Gallop said we need to re-educate the judges," she said.
"If you read some of [Arrowsmith's proceedings], you'll say to yourself, 'That could be now'.
"30 years have gone by and it's still the same. Women are still being murdered by ex-partners and it just makes me so angry."
Since Leanne's murder, Mrs Harvey has spoken at rallies, petitioned the government for sentencing practices to reflect the seriousness of crimes, and even worked in a court support role.
Looking through a stacked pile of documents, letters and press clippings she has kept over the last three decades, Mrs Harvey said: "Nothing's changed."
"All the things I was fighting for - it's made no difference."
Is the ACT too lenient?
Mrs Harvey is not the first person to accuse the territory of being a more lenient jurisdiction than others around Australia.
Nearly two years ago, the territory's police association described the ACT's sentencing and bail processes as "fundamentally flawed and dangerously inadequate".
Months later, the ACT's then-chief crown prosecutor Anthony Williamson SC said too many people were being let free by the courts to commit further crime.
"A very high portion of serious offences committed in the territory are committed by people who are subject to either bail, parole or a good behaviour order," he said at the time.
Others have argued the ACT should proudly lead the way on progressive justice system reform, pointing to the way prisons institutionalise.
At a territory ceremonial sitting in late-2022, retiring Justice Michael Elkaim thanked former Chief Justice Helen Murrell for advising him to "wear my leniency as a badge of honour".
Justice Elkaim said regular prosecution appeals over his six-and-a-half-year tenure gave the impression "almost every sentence I have imposed has not been long enough".
Speaking to this masthead earlier this month, not in the context of this story, ACT Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said public perception about the court being lenient was one of its biggest challenges.
The judge said public opinion couldn't be the only factor guiding sentencing practices but courts had to be mindful of public expectations.
"The whole purpose of the system of criminal law is to make sure that people don't take justice into their own hands because they trust the court to do justice for them," she said.
"You can't earn that trust and maintain that respect if you're not keeping one eye on how you're going in that."
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 23 per cent of defendants found guilty of at least one family violence charge in the ACT were sentenced to time in custody last financial year.
That is more or less on par with the national average of 19 per cent.
But notably, in that time span, the territory more than doubled the national average by giving good behaviour orders served in the community to 40 per cent of defendants guilty of domestic violence charges.
In April 1994, Mrs Harvey wrote a story for The Canberra Times expressing her love for Leanne and pain following her murder. Neither feeling appears to have faded to this day.
"Our lives will never be the same again," she wrote.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; ACT Domestic Violence Crisis Service 6280 0900; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
