Women behind domestic abuse graphic targeted by vile trolls

A victims of violence awareness campaign created by an award-winning journalist has come under attack for ‘not including male victims’ and ‘making all men look bad.’

Sherele Moody, founder of the Red Heart Campaign, said she has been inundated with vile and abusive messages since she created the interactive online memorial, which she called the Australian Femicide Map.

‘Burn in hell you dog b****’, ‘Die you c***’, and ‘Someone should kill you. Put you on the f***ing map,’ are just some of the messages the journalist says she has received.

A victims of violence awareness campaign (pictured) created by an award-winning journalist has come under attack for ‘not including male victims’ and ‘making all men look bad’

'Burn in hell you dog b****', 'Die you c***', and 'Someone should kill you. Put you on the f***ing map,' are just some of the messages the journalist says she has received

‘Burn in hell you dog b****’, ‘Die you c***’, and ‘Someone should kill you. Put you on the f***ing map,’ are just some of the messages the journalist says she has received

Ms Moody created the map – an ongoing collection of photographs and stories – to pay tribute to the Australian women and children who have died from violence. 

Users can search for victims, read their stories and locate where the deaths took place.   

‘It is a forum that shows where femicides and child killings are occurring while sharing information about the victims’ deaths,’ she explains.  

‘The material is sourced from coroner’s reports, media stories, police and family and friends of victims’.   

Despite the overwhelming success of the map so far, with 100,000 views in little over a week, Ms Moody said the outpouring of vitriol she has received from ‘keyboard warriors’ has been unprecedented.  

Ms Moody created the map (pictured) - an ongoing collection of photographs and stories - to pay tribute to the Australian women and children who have died from violence

Ms Moody created the map (pictured) – an ongoing collection of photographs and stories – to pay tribute to the Australian women and children who have died from violence

‘I have been inundated with messages from angry strangers telling me I am wrong for not including male victims,’ she told the Sunshine Coast Daily. 

‘[The messages said] I am unnecessarily highlighting male violence to make all men look bad; and I am using the deaths of women and children to push some sort of agenda that involves milking money from taxpayers.’ 

‘Look at you … using the deaths of women and children just to promote your own agenda. I don’t know who is sicker; you or the perpetrators of those crimes,’ one critic wrote. 

‘She [Sherele Moody] simply doesn’t like men,’ the Domestic Violence Awareness Australia Facebook page wrote. 

‘Keep reporting Red Heart as a hate page,’ a member of the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers said. 

Some messages, which included threats of violence, were shared with police.  

But Ms Moody said the map is not designed to paint all men as perpetrators of violence.

‘There is just no shying away from the fact that most people who are killed in Australia die at the hands of males. And that means most of the victims will have lost their lives to male violence,’ she explained. 

‘If you take the time to peruse the map, you will find it contains the stories of women and children killed by males or females – regardless of the perpetrator’s relationship to the victim’. 

Despite the backlash, Ms Moody said the wouldn’t be deterred from continuing the project which has so far taken two years of independent research to document the stories of more than 1,100 women and children who were lost to violence.

The project is entirely self-funded and without the help of the government, corporations or charities, she said.  

The project has so far taken two years of independent research to document the stories of more than 1,100 women and children who were lost to violence

The project has so far taken two years of independent research to document the stories of more than 1,100 women and children who were lost to violence

The map includes victims of a broad range of violence including stranger violence, terrorism, domestic violence and extreme neglect.

Deaths by domestic violence feature highly as most women and children who die a violent death do so in a family abuse situation, Ms Moody explained.

Violent deaths also feature more predominantly in metropolitan and key regional centres; a feature Ms Moody admits does not reflect the high number of indigenous victims in more remote areas as deaths are rarely recorded publicly.

Ms Moody is quick to explain that the map is not based on statistics, but rather a collection of stories highlighting the lives of women and children who ‘are more than numbers’.

She aims to add a further 1,000 victims over the coming months and to record all femicides and child deaths from white settlement to now. 

The documentation is hoped to inspire those in danger and those who are violent to seek help. 

The Australian Femicide Map can be viewed here. 

For 24-hour domestic violence support call the national hotline 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732. 

  

 



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