We live under a two-tiered justice system every bit as evil and bigoted as apartheid or the era of Jim Crow laws.
In some sense it is more insidious than either of those two criminal systems. The overt, blatant nature of the discrimination in South Africa and America ensured that people of conscience would respond to the horrific injustices being perpetrated upon black people and a back lash, a day of reckoning was almost a certainty.
People marched in their tens of thousands in America, demanding an end to the racial violence and segregation which had existed in America for so long and especially in the southern states.
South Africa was condemned by nations around the world. Boycotts and sanctions were imposed in an effort to pressure the South African government to change their apartheid system. Sporting teams refused to play games in South Africa and any athlete or sportsman/team who chose to go there was condemned and treated as a pariah and supporter of that system.
The protests, marches and boycotts were successful and both of these manifestly unjust systems were dismantled.
No such actions will be taken by anyone with regard to another system of two-tiered justice.
Men are inarguably treated as second class citizens by our legal system. They are the demographic who is imprisoned at a much higher rate than women for commission of the same crime. When both men and women are incarcerated, studies have found men receive a 63% longer prison term than their female counterparts. Again, this is after comparing cases and making sure they are like for like and the prisoner has a similar history of offenses.
When this study was first published, I don’t believe it caused a ripple of outrage within the judicial system, our governments or the media. Most people would be entirely ignorant about this shocking sentencing and imprisonment gap.
Yet even though we now know how disadvantaged men are, there have been endless cries, particularly in Great Britain to demolish women’s prisons and find other ways to penalize them when they commit a crime. Women should not be forced to spend a day in prison they argue-that’s something we should reserve for men.
You would think I am simply pulling these ideas out of my backside but sadly it is all well documented and very public. The fact that this idea is even discussed and debated on television and radio and raised by politicians is horrific enough, but don’t be surprised if very soon, a government adopts this idea as a new policy in order to protect our women from enduring something as appalling as a jail cell.
This morning two articles appeared in the morning newspaper, the Herald Sun. Both of them focused on the sentencing of two women, both found guilty of horrendous acts of violence.
The first thing to catch my eye was the humorous (nudge, nudge, wink wink) tone of the headlines above the articles.
One declared:
Ball Breaker: Drug Dealer Turns Violent
Get it? Hilarious. She crushed his testicles. Ballbreaker!
I think Titcrusher or Melon Mauler would be another cute eyecatcher the next time some bloke gropes and squeezes the breasts of a woman in a night club.
Another clever headline related to a wife pouring a pot of boiling water on her sleeping husband’s head was:
Wife Faces Court After Marriage Boilover
What is it about the infliction of violence on men by women which invariably induces laughter and inspires headlines like the ones I have presented?
Let’s examine the details of the Ballbreaker case and see how it all panned out when the time for sentencing arrived.
A Reservoir woman viciously attacked a man, squeezing his testicles and biting him, before she was caught with a large drug stash.
Shonte Mould 21 (below) was sentenced to a 12 month community corrections order before Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday having pleaded guilty to charges including trafficking ice, GHB and Xanax, and assault.
Shonte has the exact look Paul Elam described on an episode of Regarding Men as a face which all men should take to be a warning sign that this woman is mentally unbalanced and dangerous. Note the botox pumped lips and meticulously shaped eyebrows. As well as being a violent, abusive creep and drug trafficker I would suggest narcissism would be another of her fine qualities.
Mould was at her mum’s Korumburra home on February 25th 2020 when she got into an argument with a family friend-an older man-and began screaming at him.
The man stopped Mould punching him before she bit his forearm, breaking his skin, then grabbed hold of his testicles and squeezed hard.
When interviewed by police, Mould admitted “I have bitten him quite viciously and then grabbed hold of his testicles and squeezed hard.”
The court heard Mould was found to be dealing drugs after police raided her Reservoir home on October 21, 2020.
Magistrate Meagan Keogh said she had considered jail time but gave Mould the community corrections order after Mould said she wanted to develop “More awareness about why I did those things.”
Let me repeat that final sentence. The Magistrate decided against giving this violent thug and drug trafficker any jail time because: Mould said she wanted to develop,
“more awareness about why I did those things.”
Surely a period of time in jail would have given Mould ample time to reflect on her sins. Is it not possible to become more aware of the reasons for your violent temperament while sitting alone in prison cell?
On the very same morning in the very same paper, the outcome of a second case was reported on.
Magistrate Meagan Keogh
A husband informed his wife of 28 years he wanted to separate. That same night he decided he would sleep in a separate bedroom. He said she could sleep in the master bedroom.
A woman who poured boiling water over her husband’s face as he slept because he told her he wanted to leave the marriage has walked out of court after promising to be of good behaviour.
Maria Doris Axiak, 58, disconnected the landline and hid her husband’s keys and phone to prevent him getting help after her revenge attack.
She was convicted in the County Court of Victoria of recklessly and intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence and sentenced on Friday to a three-year community corrections order.
She spent 37 days in pre-sentence detention.
Maria Doris Axiak walked out of the County Court on Friday after being sentenced to a community corrections order.
Axiak hugged her lawyer Nola Karapanagiotidis after she learned she would not spend any more time behind bars.
She left the building flanked by supporters.
Can you imagine the response if a man who had hurled boiling water into the face of his wife for saying she wanted to separate, left court flanked by a throng of jubilant supporters?
On September 22, 2018, Axiak threw a pot of boiling water over her husband of 28 years as he slept.
It perforated his eardrum and burned his head, right arm, shoulder and torso.
The time line of the night’s events was described as follows:
Axiak called her daughter crying hysterically.
Then she smoked a cigarette, disconnected the landline and put a pot of water to boil on the stove.
About 7.30pm she went into the spare room and poured the water over him while he slept.
“She then drove out of the house, taking the (victim’s) mobile phone and car keys with her,” a police summary of facts reads.
The victim had to go to a neighbour’s house to call for help.
He was put into an induced coma in hospital and underwent skin grafts, with burns covering 12 per cent of his body.
Meanwhile, Axiak had arrived at her daughter’s house, where the mother told her, “he deserves it”.
“Out of 20 years of misery, I want him to look in the mirror every day …” she said.
“I took his keys and phone and I don’t give a f**k.”
She later texted her daughter with ‘thumbs up’ and ‘clapping hands’ emojis and wrote, “I hope they keep him there (in hospital) for at least a month”.
Axiak later told police she was sick of him “spoiling her weekends” and of his drinking.
“When he looks in the mirror he can see I’ve been hurt too,” she said, telling police she wanted him to have blisters and bubbles on his skin.
She moved from Malta to Australia at age 18 with her first husband, with the “unhappy” marriage ending after 10 years.
The court heard she “felt abused and controlled” by her second husband, her victim.
Judge Claire Quin said Axiak had told the court both her parents were alcoholics and her mother was abusive.
Interesting. This violent dangerous woman was herself abused by a woman-her mother.
Judge Clair Quin
She has major depression, bipolar, and PTSD, having undergone treatments including electroconvulsive therapy and had multiple voluntary and involuntary hospital admissions for mental health, the court heard.
“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that your impaired mental functioning from PTSD is causally linked to the commission of the offence and that it substantially and materially reduces your culpability,” Judge Quin said.
Axiak has no prior convictions and no history of alcohol or drug abuse, Judge Quin said.
I would like to ask the magistrate a question.
How can a person who is in a state of substantially impaired mental functioning manage to think her way through her plans to inflict unimaginable pain and scarring on her husband in such a clinical manner?
She put the pot onto the stove to boil the water, cut the landline, stole his mobile phone and car keys in order to prevent him from getting help. She waited until he was asleep before assaulting him.
This sounds to me like the careful, calculated forward thinking action of a hitman rather than an act of compulsion by a seriously intellectually impaired woman.
The information in the box below appeared at the end of the article. Please note that all of the hotlines for those seeking emergency assistance if they have been involved in a violent domestic incident are targeting and offering support to women.
The only lines specifically created for men contain the following description of the service.
Men who have anger, relationship or parenting issues should contact the men’s referral service 1300 766 491 or “Don’t Be That Man” helpline on 1300 243 413
If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual abuse or family violence contact:
- National Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence Counselling Service 24-hour helpline 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732
- 24-hour Emergency Accommodation helpline on 1800 800 588
- Safe At Home helpline on 1800 633 937
- SHE (free and confidential counselling and support) on 6278 9090
- Sexual Assault Support Services on 6231 1811, or after hours 6231 1817
- Family Violence Crisis and Support Service on 1800 608 122
- Bravehearts – Sexual Assault Support for Children on 1800 BRAVE 1
Don’t go it alone. Please reach out for help by contacting Lifeline on 13 11 14
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Men who have anger, relationship or parenting issues, should contact the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491 or the Don’t Become That Man helpline on 1300 243 413
There is no helpline called the “Don’t Be That Woman” helpline. Nothing to even imply that a woman could be inclined to harm her child or partner.
And this information comes at the end of an article detailing in vivid language the coldly calculated act of vicious, disfiguring violence carried out by a woman on a sleeping man.
The man was placed in an induced coma.
He had to endure skin grafts and terrible pain and disfigurement. You could not have clearer evidence of the fact that this was not an action carried out in the red mist of mindless passion.
Am I permitted to ask the judge what kind of violent assault may have resulted in this woman being jailed?
These cases are happening every week in our judicial system. Women are repeatedly given lenient sentences for acts of horrific violence which, if enacted by a man would be on the front page of our newspapers and the subject of endless editorializing on news programs and women’s talk shows. We would see women and men expressing their outrage in the streets and outside the court.
But note too, that the woman who poured boiling water over her sleeping husband’s face was flanked by supporters when she left the court.
This is a perfect example of the way women respond when a female is charged with a heinous crime. She is very quickly presented as the victim. Note the standard defense used by Maria Axiak?
She felt abused and controlled.
She didn’t say I was abused and controlled and provide evidence to support her claim. She felt it.
May I ask why an abusive, controlling man would inform his victim that he wished to leave the relationship and then kindly offer her the master bedroom to sleep in while he retired to the spare room for the night? This is not the behaviour of a controlling, abusive husband.
Given the regularity of female violence perpetrated on both children and their male partners it is astonishing to think there are still politicians advocating that female prisons should become a draconian relic of our past. They believe we must find another way to deal with females who transgress because they are not deserving of the same consequences our men are expected to face.
Women’s prisons are filled with people who should not be there: not just abuse survivors, but those with serious mental health and addiction issues who have never been able to get the help they need and have found their way into the prison system via repeated minor offences. More than three in five are serving sentences of less than six months. And the deepest injustice of all is the impact on children. We live in a society where mothers are still overwhelmingly the primary carers; women still represent the bulk of single parents. The vast majority of children get uprooted from their homes when their mother goes to prison: either taken into care, or sent to live with relatives.
Are there not prisons overflowing with men who have committed drug related and nonviolent crimes?
Are our men’s prisons not filled with men who have serious mental health and addiction issues? Are there not countless men in prison who experienced sexual abuse as a youth?
Are men not the major provider of for their family?
Why the desperate examination of every second of a criminal woman’s life in order to unearth the “real” reason for her aberrant behaviour while male criminals are considered nothing but evil, brutal, irredeemable scum. No amount of abuse or addiction can mitigate a man’s wrongdoing.
Charities that work with female offenders have been left scratching their heads. I wonder if ministers, in their rush to see people as people, not protected characteristics, simply forgot that female offenders are so very different to their male counterparts.
Female offenders are so very different to their male counterparts.
So different.
Perhaps she means the women tend to hold the axe or knife in a different way to the average male killer. The burning, strangling, drowning and shooting carried out by women must also have a female style that separates it from the male methods used.
The arguments seem to be that we can’t jail mums no matter what their crime may have been because they are the primary child carers. Yet the very same argument is used in a slightly different way to defend women who kill and abuse their children.
Talk about having all bases covered.
When you say: “Women are actually more likely to kill, abuse and neglect their children, an oft used response (and defense) is that women spend more time with children, so of course they are going to be more likely to bash, strangle, burn, drown and torture them. I mean, seriously, what do you expect?
And they actually believe this is a slam dunk, end of the discussion, winning argument.
But we are constantly told women are nurturers and innately more compassionate and caring than men. Every domestic violence ad features men and boys perpetrating all of the violence. So, which is it?
Women are inclined to kill and abuse children when exposed to them for too long.
or
Women are gentle, protective nurturers and the last line of defense for their children under threat from a toxic male?
We live in a world which reviles masculinity and punishes male indiscretions with great severity. That same society reveres women and gently admonishes them when they bash and kill.
Sadly, I don’t believe we will ever see the day when tens of thousands of people march to voice their anger over a legal system which is corrupt and infested with a poisonous ideology, no less hateful than those we have witnessed in the past when a certain demographic was depicted as vermin and the cause of all of society’s woes.
Our legal system operates under a simple premise.
