She pulled through…

She was working the morning shift when she opened the file on her desk from the night before.  There staring back at her was a photo of a woman lying on the floor, blood everywhere.  At first glance, she thought she was dead.   She continued to leaf through the pages and was heartbroken to learn, the victims son had seen her in this state as well.      

 After reading the file and statements she was struck by the magnitude of the situation and instinctively knew the level of violence that was bestowed on the victim was not the first time.  Domestic abuse more often than not escalates from threats and verbal abuse to violence.  During her 10 years of experience as RCMP officer, she knew there was much more to this Domestic Violence incident and she was going to find out.  

 She quickly learned the victim was terrified every day and the abuse she suffered, she endured it for 12 years.  At first, he used fear, guilt and shame to make her feel like she was nothing.  Then he controlled her, threatened her and eventually started to beat her all the while telling her how much he loved her.  Before that night, he had never left marks and bruises where people could see them and truth to be told, she would have never made that call for help on her own.

 As she suspected, it wasn’t just the one time incident they were dealing with, as she learned more of the victims’ story, she was able to lay two more additional charges on the abuser.  The Victim told her if the abuser wasn’t charged that night; she would have gone back to him regardless of the damage he had done to her.  

From that moment, she made sure she provided the victim with non-stop support.  She worked to put an emergency protection order in place as quickly as possible to keep the abuser legally away from the victims’ home and her child’s school.  She ensured Victims Services set her up with a Safe track device, which is a one-touch personal panic button monitoring system that can be pressed at anytime in case of an emergency.  She also set her up with Safe house and they sent a retired police officer to assess her home for any vulnerabilities. 

 To be able to help her see it through was an incredible feeling.  More often than not the victims of domestic violence go back to the abuser and she had a feeling, even though the victim had no family, no job, and no income, coupled with the fragile state of mind, she would pull through and she did.  

She was beyond proud of her.