Woman left wheelchair-bound as a teenager after she was bashed and choked by her ex-boyfriend so violently her vocal chords were severed shares shocking photos of her injuries
- Domestic abuse survivor Anj Barker recalled abuse at hands of her ex-partner
- Ms Barker was only 16 when she was beaten at high school in Benalla, Victoria
- The ex-partner smashed her head against a steel bench and broke her jaw
- Ms Barker was unconscious for three weeks and now lives with limited speech
A woman who was left wheelchair bound after she was beaten within an inch of her life as a teenager by her violent ex-boyfriend has revealed the gruesome details and pictures of her assault.
Anj Barker was only 16-years-old when her then-boyfriend attacked her at her high school in Benalla, a remote town in Victoria back in 2002.
After they had arranged to meet in the afternoon and Ms Barker told her boyfriend that she wasn’t taking him back, the abusive 20-year-old flew into one of his all too common rages.
He smashed Ms Barker’s head against a steel bench, jumped on her face and choked her so badly he ripped her vocal chords.
Anj Barker was only 16-years-old when her then-boyfriend attacked her at her high school in Benalla, a remote town in Victoria back in 2002 (pictured, Anj Barker when she was 16)
Emergency services had to revive Ms Barker numerous times as they rushed her to hospital where she was placed in intensive care. Her parents were told to prepare for the worst (pictured, Anj Barker in hospital)
As Ms Barker lay on the ground with a snapped jaw and blood and brain fluid leaking out of her ear, the crazed boyfriend fled the scene.
But that was not before yelling to a passerby: ‘You can f***ing look after her now.’
Emergency services had to revive Ms Barker numerous times as they rushed her to hospital where she was placed in intensive care. Her parents were told to prepare for the worst.
Images show a bruised and battered Ms Barker hooked up to a respiratory monitor and IV drip while her vital signs are closely monitored.
After three weeks of lying unconscious in a bed, she woke up unresponsive.
Over the course of a decade, Ms Barker went through intense rehabilitation.
‘It took me five months to touch my bottom lip with my tongue,’ she told news.com.
‘I was bedridden for years and non-verbal for five.’
Ms Barker stayed in a nursing home for two years before she finally moved home where she now has a carer.
Although Ms Barker has been confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, her former boyfriend only received a maximum jail sentence of 10 and a half years.
Regardless, Ms Barker has since become an advocate for victims of domestic violence and spoken at schools.
In her upcoming appearance on ABC’s ‘You Can’t Ask That’, Ms Barker reveals the all too common question she often gets: ‘Why didn’t you leave sooner?’
‘I thought I was going to fix him,’ Anj said.
Images show a bruised and battered Ms Barker hooked up to a respiratory monitor and IV drip while her vital signs are closely monitored
‘I was going to make him a better person. He would grovel and come back to me. He would always promise he would never hit me again. It was all lies. I fell for it.’
Ms Barker was only 14 when she met the man, who was popular in town.
While they might have looked like any other loved-up young couple at the outset, her former boyfriend slowly isolated her.
What began as verbal abuse brewed into physical violence – to the point where he even threatened to ‘cut my head off with an axe.’
When Ms Barker worked up the strength to finally break it off on March 2002, she never expected it to change her life forever.
But after she was left broken and close to death, she discovered a new strength, and that was to be a loud and formidable voice for those who are often, and sadly, not heard.
‘You Can’t Ask That’ returns to television screens at 9pm on Wednesday.
When Ms Barker worked up the strength to finally break it off on March 2002, she never expected it to change her life forever (pictured, Ms Barker in upcoming ABC show ‘You Can’t Ask That’