The Rules

I first met Frank in Karratha, Western Australia in 1970. Frank decided I was going to belong to him and put a plan of action together to achieve it. In 1977, after selling my business in South Australia, the children and I returned to Western Australia to start living with Frank. In the first week of living under his roof I had to listen attentively while Frank laid down all of the rules that my children and I had to obey. Frank physically demonstrated what would happen to us if his rules were not obeyed. From then on Frank lived off our fear of him, he wanted to control our every thought and action. I had to have permission to leave the house. I was never allowed to shower or bath before him and I was forced to use solvol. The children would be interrogated by Frank to find out who has used too much toilet paper. To protect them I would take the blame myself.

We were not able to eat until he was at the table, sometimes waiting hours for him to come. We weren't allowed to have lunch at the weekends; he controlled everything that went into our mouths. At times we were allowed only one light on in the house. He took the globe out of the toilet because he accused someone of leaving it on.

The Abuse

It didn't matter who you were or how old you were, Frank physically abused and mentally terrorised your every thought. Your only way of surviving the fear of him was to obey without question.

My first experience of Frank's violence was with Adam, a one year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Adam strolled away from where Frank had instructed him to stay. I went to the dogs rescue and was belted and held against the wall, told to mind my own business. Frank belted Adam severely many times. One day he was taken out to the bush and shot in front of my two youngest children. Frank abused many of the children's pets. Paul's pet kitten was bludgeoned to death because Paul didn't give Frank his full attention. We watched the heads of budgerigars ripped off in a violent rage.

A few months after I started living with Frank I had to rescue my little daughter Erica (8 years old) as Frank dragged her up the passageway almost ripping her ears off her head, because she had been proud to have two surnames and Frank only allowed one, his. It took me weeks to recover from the broken ribs I received trying to help Erica. Frank would follow my youngest daughter home from school travelling inches behind her bike wheels with his Holden station wagon, frightening her, threatening to chop her up into little pieces. He would tell her he had the axe and garbage bags ready for her and that if her mother loved her enough she'd be able to put all the pieced back together again. Erica was told this over and over again. She still has nightmares about it.

There was violence and abuse day after day. Frank punched Paul in the mouth when he had braces on, tearing his mouth apart inside, because he dropped the margarine lid on the floor. Erica's nose was broken for swearing. Sharon was dragged up the street after disobeying an order and eventually ran away from home. I was dragged by the hair, pushed and thumped to the floor constantly. Frank would hold my head under water saying I'd filled the bath with too much water.

I was forced into anal and oral sex for his gratification. Years of infections led to my hospitalisation, but he stilled continued with the abuse.

Frank would hold razor blades to my face and say "I'm going to slice your face this time". He made me wear band-aids on my nipples and checked each day that they hadn't been removed. Frank said he hated headlights on women.

When he'd go out to play darts he'd lock me in the house and take the fuses out of the power board. Not being allowed to have a key to the front door of our house. I would be belted and poked when trying to sleep if I was breathing too fast or too loud. I was never allowed to close my eyes before he was asleep.

Frank snuck into the bedroom - suffocating me by holding my head onto the carpet after dragging me out of the bed because he had given me an order that David was to leave the house and he hadn't.

Attempts to Leave and Threats of Death

On one occasion when we tried to leave, Frank held a rifle to our heads and said he was going to kill us 'this time'. Frank threatened to kill us all so many times…I remember the fear waiting for the gun to go off. He said that if I ever left him or attempted to leave again he would find us, he said there was no where to hid from him - he would get us one by one.

My mother flew over to help us leave but she returned home by herself. Frank would not allow me to leave the house or him. The boys moved from Bendigo to live with their father because of the violence. The girls insisted on staying with me, they wouldn't go. I was frightened to leave the children in Frank's care while I was at work. Another time Frank threatened to shoot my mother and myself if I didn't return to him - holding her life against my return - I had left him heading for Perth.

Many times the police came to the house and they always left me to the mercy of Frank. This was the pattern of our life with Frank. Shifting out in the middle of the night with the help of friends in fear of Frank. Moving away but not being left alone by Frank. He stalked us at home, he stalked me at work, he broke into the house and refused to leave. Frank would sit for hours watching my place of work. After work he would wait for me in the bushes in the front of my premises, grabbing me and accusing me of taking too long to arrive home from work. Frank constantly did things like pinch the washing from the line, and take the distributor cap from my car. He threatened to have a bomb fitted to the ignition of my car. Frank would tell me in detail what would happen to me when I turned the key one day.

The second time I left the Moran St address, Frank ripped the door off it's hinges in my new home because he wanted to talk to me and the door was in the way. He broke into my home through the window while I was at work. Frank insisted he had to check in case I was hiding someone from him, insisting I must have a boyfriend hiding there.

On another occasion Frank axed the door down as I pleaded with him to leave us alone. The police came but they just talked to him again, Frank just ordered them away. One day we came home to find that Frank had emptied the house of all our furniture and clothing while the police and the neighbours stood by and watched him. (Everyone was scared of Frank, including the police.) Frank threatened the neighbours, he didn't allow anyone to speak to us or spend time with us.

The Impact of Abuse

After years of living under the mental and physical stress I had a nervous breakdown and had to have 9 weeks off work. When I returned to work I was told that the company had had enough of Frank's behaviour and that he was causing too many problems at my work place for the staff and the management.

I feared him and I was so emotionally sick that I couldn't fight him. He owned me. I would sit motionless for hours because I was told to stay and I was too frightened to move. I would only move when told, becoming so fearful with each breath I took because Frank believed he owned the air I breathed and told me he could stop that whenever he liked.

From December 1977 until July 1991 we lived in constant fear of our lives. In the end David and I were being threatened hourly, Frank said that David had to leave. The police had been called to the house again because of Frank's violence but had left after being threatened by Frank to get off his property. David was belted down and thrown to the floor after trying to defend me - there was no way out of this life with Frank. There is no doubt that I would be dead now because of the continual violence. David and I did what we did to ensure our mental and physical survival.