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Speaker 1: Ali and your father, who lost the love of his

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Speaker 1: life after she was stalked and killed by her former boss,

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Speaker 1: is prepared to sue the Northern Territory government for letting

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Speaker 1: this violent man slip through the cracks. Now we know

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Speaker 1: that Darwin business owner and mother Sheena Fairfield, was killed

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Speaker 1: on November tenth, twenty twenty two. Her husband Mick Fairfield,

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Speaker 1: has spoken exclusively to zz Avril, the Northern Territory News

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Speaker 1: Court reporter, about the shocking situation, and Zizi joins me

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Speaker 1: on the line. Good morning, Zzy, good morning, thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. Now Zizi mix sat

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Speaker 1: down with you and shared his little family's harrowing and

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Speaker 1: heartbreaking story. I know that you've got a three part

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Speaker 1: series in the paper which covers the situation extensively. Talk

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Speaker 1: me through what you've published.

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Speaker 2: So I've had a beautiful set down with Meck shortly

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Speaker 2: after his wife's killer found not guilty by reason of

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Speaker 2: mental impairments. Mick has been three years really not knowing

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Speaker 2: what happened to Sena, the lead up, the motive, the circumstances,

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Speaker 2: any of those details, because he could have been a

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Speaker 2: witness in her trial, which meant that essentially, in order

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Speaker 2: to preserve the right to a fair trial, he was

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Speaker 2: not allowed to have any information about what happened to

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Speaker 2: his life. Now that we've reached the stage where a

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Speaker 2: jury trial is really impossible, he's still not able to

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Speaker 2: access that information and is feeling quite betrayed and left

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Speaker 2: in the dark about what has happened over these three

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Speaker 2: years and the impact had on his family.

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Speaker 1: It is unbelievable, you know, Yeah, like my heart breaks

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Speaker 1: for him. I know he's contacted us on a few occasions,

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Speaker 1: and it's been really difficult to you know, for any

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Speaker 1: to be able to talk a lot about the situation,

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Speaker 1: as you said, because it's got to go, it had

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Speaker 1: to go through that court process. So ceazy for our

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Speaker 1: listeners this morning. What exactly is the situation as it stands.

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Speaker 2: So we're still waiting on the complete determination of what's

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Speaker 2: going to happen to her killer jo a clop Up.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, he's considered unfit faith trial and unfit

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Speaker 2: to plead in the territory we don't have a forensic

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Speaker 2: mental health facility, which means he's essentially going to be

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Speaker 2: indefinitely held in prison as if it's determined there is

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Speaker 2: no possibility of his safe relief. So they're what's called

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Speaker 2: in the prison system as a part to a prisoner yep.

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Speaker 2: And every twelve months his risk status will be reviewed,

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Speaker 2: which will evaluate whether or not he can be safely reliefed.

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Speaker 2: And what Nick has said to me is that that's

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Speaker 2: uncertainty has really meant he can't stay in the territory

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Speaker 2: because he will never know what year his wife's killer

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Speaker 2: will be released.

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Speaker 1: It is just like it's an unbelievable situation for he

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Speaker 1: and his daughter to be in. I know that misspoken

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Speaker 1: quite extensively to you about his heartbreak and also you

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Speaker 1: know about those concerns and about the concerns that he

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Speaker 1: had about the killer well slipping through the cracks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because we've got someone who's been found so mentally

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Speaker 2: incapacitated that he wasn't in control of his actions. I

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Speaker 2: think the family has rightly been left with some questions

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Speaker 2: about were their opportunities for the health system, for the police,

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Speaker 2: for any other of our safety nets to have caught

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Speaker 2: him before it escalated to this point. Yeah, because he

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Speaker 2: doesn't have any of that information, he's really just you know,

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Speaker 2: left asking these questions. So it's very difficult that family

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Speaker 2: and to really not know how this has occurred and

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Speaker 2: what red flag might have been missed.

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Speaker 1: And I know that today you know, you have indeed

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Speaker 1: as well published quite an extensive story you know about

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Speaker 1: I guess the lack of support as well for him

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Speaker 1: and his daughter through what has been like an unbelievably

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Speaker 1: harrowing time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so five year old Brooklyn witnessed her the killing

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Speaker 2: and has obviously been left with some like really deep

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Speaker 2: psychological scars. She's been able to access counseling. But what

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Speaker 2: the family has really had to reckon with is the

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Speaker 2: victims compensation scheme in the territory, which caps out at

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Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars. And if you have to leave your home,

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Speaker 2: restart your life, support your child, and balance all that

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Speaker 2: with a mortgage and rent and daily bills and any

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Speaker 2: trauma that you might need to take away from work,

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Speaker 2: it really doesn't lead very much at all.

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Speaker 1: No, at a point in time that's just you know,

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Speaker 1: that would be unbelievably difficult for them.

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Speaker 2: Oh it. I cannot imagine what that family has been through,

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Speaker 2: or really any family that's trying to navigate what seems

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Speaker 2: like a very arduous, bureaucratic process while you're dealing with their.

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Speaker 1: Own grief spot on, I mean czy in terms of,

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Speaker 1: you know, the broader issue I guess when it comes

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Speaker 1: to dealing with violent offenders with mental illness as well.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we touched on this before, but it does

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Speaker 1: sort of show that we've you know, that we have

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Speaker 1: got a situation in the Northern Territory where there really

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Speaker 1: isn't you know, adequate services, I guess in a lot

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Speaker 1: of ways, or enough.

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Speaker 2: No, So what we hear from mental health sector workers

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Speaker 2: is that we only really treat people when they reach

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Speaker 2: the acute stage in the territory, when they're at a crisis,

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Speaker 2: when they're no longer safe for themselves, but in this

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Speaker 2: instance that it appears that they're not safe for other people.

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Speaker 2: We don't have those social safety nets and we don't

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Speaker 2: have enough funding for those non acute community based services

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Speaker 2: which can really catch people before they become a real

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Speaker 2: risk to themselves and others.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then, of course, you know, as we were

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Speaker 1: talking about just a moment ago, ensuring that there's adequate

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Speaker 1: funding as well for the likes of victims of crime,

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Speaker 1: so that you know, when we have got a situation

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Speaker 1: like this one where you know that then there can

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Speaker 1: potentially be greater support for a family like this exactly.

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Speaker 2: And what we've heard from the Colonial as well is

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Speaker 2: it seems that Mick and Brooklyn actually got their victims

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Speaker 2: compensation dealt with quite quickly, we heard in the Coronial

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Speaker 2: for domestic violence, but some victims were waiting eight or

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Speaker 2: nine years for compensation that only arrived after they had passed.

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Speaker 2: So this is a system that's like clearly overburdened and

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Speaker 2: we don't have that support.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got to make sure that they provided the

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Speaker 1: support that well, that they're provided the funding so that

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Speaker 1: they're able to provide that support to Territorians in the

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Speaker 1: way that they need cz to anybody out there listening

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Speaker 1: this morning that is keen to go and read this

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Speaker 1: three part series. I'm assuming that it is up on

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory News website.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's all available on our website and all the

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Speaker 2: stories will link together for the easy.

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Speaker 1: To find zz. I really appreciate you having a chat

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Speaker 1: with us this morning. I think it's so very important

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Speaker 1: that mixed story is heard, so I really appreciate you

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Speaker 1: having a chat with us today.

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Speaker 2: It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you