WHEN WORDS HIS LIKE FISTS

THE STORY OF MATTHEW NEWTON AND THE LAWYER

Published in the Melbourne Herald Sun in January 2007

Although I’ve stopped being surprised by the stories of violence women tell me, I continue to be amazed by the way some men respond whenever a women makes such allegations. ‘Ninety people died in Iraq today, most of them kids. This is a very minor matter,’ solicitor Chris Murphy told reporters outside Balmain Court on Wednesday. Murphy was speaking on behalf of entertainer Matthew Newton, who was facing charges of assaulting former girlfriend Brooke Satchell.

While Newton has every right to a presumption of innocence and, of course, an assault isn’t the same as a killing the words still make me bristle. Someone should have asked Murphy when he thought it proper and reasonable for a woman to bring an assault case before the courts. Does he think she has to be dead before it’s a serious matter or that only ‘innocent’ children have a right to our sympathy or to justice? I find it hard to believe Murphy didn’t grasp the prejudice contained in his words. If the assault didn’t happen he should just say so. If it did and Newton wants to apologise then so be it.

As Chris Murphy must surely know, the sad truth is that a woman is rarely treated as ‘innocent’ when she alleges rape or assault at the hands of the man in her life. Even when they are murdered by an estranged husband women are stalked by the myth that they provoked it. That’s why the Bracks government was forced to abolish the law of provocation in 2004, a law that saw my sister’s killer get less than 4 years in gaol in 1989. When announcing its abolition the Attorney General damned the law as misogynist and guilty of treating woman as chattels. The law might be gone but the prejudices linger.

Twenty-four year old Kimberlie Watson, whose story of alleged assault at the hands of ex-boyfriend footballer Andrew Lovett featured on the front page of the Herald Sun on Saturday knows all about these prejudices. Kimberlie had contacted me last September after Lovett was quoted in the sports pages of this paper, saying the circumstances surrounding the intervention order she’d taken out against him were ‘blown out of proportion’. Months earlier, when the intervention order and her allegations of assault first made the news, Geelong warrior Sam Newman told Channel Nine's Footy Show it might have been no more than ‘extended foreplay’. Not one footballer or club official took Newman to task.

Kim had no desire to shame Lovett. A simply apology for those reckless words would have been enough. Unfortunately, when no such apology was forthcoming we agreed that I should publish her side of the story. The article, which appeared on these pages in September 2006, included the allegation, made under oath in court, that Lovett had trapped in her car and assaulted her for 45 minutes. So much for Sam Newman’s idea of foreplay!

What I didn’t write was how I’d contacted Essendon and asked that Kevin Sheedy ring me in order that we might resolve the matter without the allegations being aired in the paper. I never did hear from Sheedy and, as Herald Sun readers would know, this sorry tale had its sequel in the magistrate’s court last Thursday where Lovett was ordered to re-appear, in February 2007, to answer the charge that he breached the intervention order. I genuinely believe that had Essendon advised Lovett to issue a public apology last September the matter would have ended there and then. There’s much to be learned from this story.

I treat the right to a presumption of innocence very seriously. And the sooner Matthew Newton and Brooke Satchell can get on with their lives the better. However, we have an obligation to afford Satchell the same rights we give to a man. That’s why I bristle when solicitor Chris Murphy effectively tells the media - before the case has even been heard - her allegations of assault are minor. If it were not for the deeply held view in male quarters that women who ‘cry rape’ or allege assault can’t be trusted or that such matters are ‘mere domestics’ Murphy’s comments would cause an outcry.

And whilst Melbourne Football Club coach Neale Daniher and the string of prominent men who wore white ribbons on White Ribbon Day - the international day of opposition to violence against women - are to be congratulated there’s clearly a lot more to fighting violence than wearing a ribbon. That Daniher has nailed his colours to the mast is clearly a step forward and a sign that progress is being made. However, as much as I want to congratulate Daniher, we can’t turn a blind eye when women are publicly ridiculed for making an allegation of assault. If Brooke Satchell were my daughter I’d have a few questions for Mr. Murphy. So too should the men who’ll be wearing the white ribbons next November.

Phil Cleary