I have endured many distressing phone calls throughout my daughter Isla’s life of 19 years and 50 weeks but this particular call broke me.
On November 19th 2024, my dear brother phoned me. “A man has just been arrested for the alleged murder of Isla.” The primal anguish I expressed in that moment was interpreted by neighbours as a crime scene. My brother was 3 hours from the nearest town, on his own and unsupported. A Vic police detective had handballed that task onto him. The following day, the grizzly details of her murder case was headlined in the media. Without warning, without thought to the trauma it would inflict on those who love Isla. Headlines were sensationalised, details graphic, language victim blamed, sources were not referenced and images chosen of Isla dressed in lingerie were used, all without permission or consent. Police justified the details were necessary to ensure bail was refused citing that they assumed the Magistrate would not grant bail, read it publicly or release it to the media.
My darling daughter was denied her dignity and respect and treated in such a grotesque, demeaning and dehumanising way in both her death and the media decisions that followed.
