Michelle Duff attended FAHS from 1996 to 2000. She believes the most interesting stories come from the things we take for granted. In her decade of reporting, Michelle has worked on staff for Stuff, the Sunday Star-Times, The Dominion Post and the Manawatū Standard. Her freelance work has been published by Vice, the Listener, the NZ Herald and North & South. A Canon Media Award-winning feature writer, Michelle is a National Correpondent and columnist for Stuff covering health, social issues, and women’s rights.
The following article appeared on www.stuff.co.nz on 19 December 2017.
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Another woman killed at the hands of her partner, and a big, gaping hole where there needs to be two words: domestic violence.
These two words have been missing throughout the coverage of the murder of Invercargill mum Verity McLean, 40, by her estranged husband, Ben McLean.
He was a policeman at the time of her killing. Initial coverage of the case told us he was a “nice guy”, whose act was “out of character” and had shocked the small community. Initial coverage, and in fact the collective narrative of all news stories, has erased Verity McLean the woman almost entirely.
Verity Ann McLean was shot and killed by Constable Ben McLean on April 25, 2017. She had left her husband for his one-time friend, Garry Duggan.
McLean decided to kill her. In Invercargill High Court this week we learned he didn’t flip out, or make a snap decision. He meticulously planned her execution, killing her after gagging her and tying her, upright, to a couch. She had 36 bruises on her body, which he inflicted using a blunt instrument. He then shot her, point blank, in the head.
He couldn’t have her, so he exerted the ultimate form of power and control over her – causing her death. He made sure she would not exist without him.
The Family Violence Death Review Committee reports make for some light bedtime reading, if you’re ever interested. You can settle in with a cup of tea while hearing about how 194 people, including 56 children, died from family violence and related homicides between 2009 and 2015 – an average of 28 a year.
You can browse the section about intimate partner violence, which is where people (mainly men) kill their (mainly female) partners, which accounted for 92 deaths in the same time period. You can read the part about how separation does not ensure the safety of women.
Indeed, almost 70 per cent of female victims are killed, or their new or ex-partners are killed, in the time leading up to or following separation.
In court, McLean reportedly fought back tears as he said: “The real victims of this death are my three children. The two most important adults in their lives are now gone.”Bert [Verity] was the love of my life who broke my heart and my soul, and I will live with regret and the torment for having been involved in her death for the rest of my life.”
No. No. The real victim of Verity McLean’s death is Verity McLean. This is the voiceless woman who has been erased. Here, let’s look at the killer – what does he have to say? Oh look, he’s crying! He had a broken heart! No. He is alive, while she is dead. He gets to make victim-blaming apologies that minimise his actions, while she can say nothing.
Also down south, in the same week as the McLean case, a Queenstown District Court judge elected not to convict a man who violently assaulted his wife and daughter after seeing a text message exchange with another man. The Herald reported how Judge John Brandts-Giesen said the assault, in which the man kicked his wife in the ribs and held his daughter down by the neck, had to be seen “in context”.
“There would be many people who would have done exactly what you did, even though it may be against the law to do so….I consider that the consequences of a conviction are out of all proportion.”
New Zealand has the highest rate of domestic violence in the developed world. The way the courts and the media talk about domestic violence matters. Someone does not kill their partner because they are in a “deadly love triangle.” It is not just a factor that the victim and killer were in a relationship; it is the factor. And there are no situations in which abuse is deserved.
We clamour for a public apology from the murderer, when it’s largely superfluous. What matters is that we have created a society in which domestic abuse flourishes, and when it appears, we don’t want to look.
In a statement released by police on Tuesday, Duggan described Verity McLean as a loving, kind, compassionate woman, and an outstanding mother. He ended: “I ask today that we give more thought, more regard and more compassion to those that have been denied their lives by evil people.”
The one person who never says anything is the one who can’t. And these are the voices we need to listen to the most – while they are still alive to be heard.
Michelle Duff
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/99989414/the-real-victim-of-verity-mcleans-death-verity-mclean