After death of comedian, Victoria’s premier rejects advice that women must guarantee their own safety

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday Eurydice “Ridi” Dixon texted a friend to say she was almost home.

The comedian had finished a gig at the Highlander Bar in the city and was making her way across Princes Park in Melbourne’s north.

Thousands make similar journeys through the popular park every day and night - students from the nearby University of Melbourne, runners, cyclists, commuters heading to and from the city.

A 3am her body was found on the grass of the park’s soccer pitch. She had been raped and murdered.



Within 24 hours and following a comprehensive media campaign, 19-year-old Jaymes Todd, a stranger to Dixon, had handed himself in to police and been charged with her murder.

But as people were still laying flowers and notes of tribute in the park, police delivered a message that left many women feeling anger alongside their grief. By Friday the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, was forced to intervene with something of a rebuke to Superintendent David Clayton’s comments.

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Before Todd’s arrest Clayton told reporters that because the park was an area of “high community activity” women needed to aware of who may be around them.

“So just make sure you have situational awareness, that you’re aware of your surroundings,” Clayton said. “If you’ve got a mobile phone carry it and if you’ve got any concerns, call police.”

It was a message that Andrews would have found jarring. He made addressing violence against women an election issue before becoming premier in 2014, and his government is in the process of implementing all 227 of the family violence royal commission’s recommendations.

The implication that women are in some way responsible for the harm inflicted on them is one his government has fought for almost four years to counteract. As they mourned Dixon, many shared their disbelief on social media that women were still having to deal with comments from police that there was somehow something more they should be doing to keep themselves safe.

“She had a phone,” Andrews wrote on Facebook. “She was using it. She was keeping an eye on her surroundings. Looking out for herself. Being responsible. Doing everything we expect.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eurydice Dixon. Photograph: Facebook

“But Eurydice did not make it home safe.

“We’ll keep asking ‘Why was she alone in the dark?’ instead of asking ‘Why was he?’. We’ll keep ignoring the real problem, instead of actually fixing it. So our message to Victorian women is this: Stay home. Or don’t.

“Go out with friends at night. Or don’t. Go about your day exactly as you intend, on your terms. Because women don’t need to change their behaviour. Men do.”

It was not the first time police asked women to evaluate their role in the crimes perpetrated against them.

“I suggest to people, particularly females, [that] they shouldn’t be alone in parks,” Detective Inspector Mick Hughes told ABC radio after the brutal and random murder of 17-year-old schoolgirl Masa Vukotic in 2015. She was killed in broad daylight while she was out walking as part of her usual exercise routine, in a much less busy park than the one Dixon was killed in.

Meshel Laurie (@Meshel_Laurie) When I was a 22 year old comedian, I constantly walked home alone from gigs in the middle of the night because I couldn't afford tram fare, let alone taxis. Should we allow murderous rapists and poverty to ensure we're locked inside for our entire lives? https://t.co/d7dKoafCKt

The CEO of Australia’s national organisation to prevent violence against women, Our Watch, said regardless of the circumstances in which women were murdered, these messages from police that women should be more vigilant were disappointing and problematic.

“These recommendations for public safety that only seem to apply to women are a clear symptom of a gender-unequal society,” Patty Kinnersly told Guardian Australia.

“Women are already cautious. Telling women to behave more cautiously will not reduce violence against them, but rather will limit their freedom and reinforce the belief that if violence is perpetrated against them, it is their fault.”

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Women are not always safe when they stay at home.

According to Bureau of Statistics data, of the women who reported being physically assaulted, 92% said the most recent assault was perpetrated by someone she knew. Sixty-five percent of these women said the assault occurred at home.

When they are out, be it during the day or at night, women take an extraordinary number of measures to protect their own safety, numerous surveys show, from carrying pepper spray, ensuring their phone is unlocked and ready to make a call for help, avoiding poorly-lit streets, being mindful of what they wear, or clutching car-keys in their hands ready to use as a weapon.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police on patrol near a growing makeshift memorial for Eurydice Dixon at the Princes Park. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

Still, they are harmed and killed, and don’t feel safe regardless of whether they walk or take transport. The latest Victorian crime statistics show sexual offences rose 13.4% in the past year.

And a report from the development and humanitarian organisation Plan International published in May that found one-quarter of women surveyed in Sydney said they were harassed on the street once a month or more. Of survey respondents, 92% said they felt unsafe on public transport at night, almost on par with reports from women in developing cities such as Delhi and Lima. And 81% felt unsafe using taxis and ride-sharing services alone at night.

freya 🐊 (@freyalogann) A lot of women will feel the death of Eurydice Dixon personally, not because we know her but because her murder is the summation of fears we govern our own lives by every single day.

Kinnersly said women felt – and often were – unsafe in such a range of environments because their safety had nothing to do with their own actions.

“Violence against women can and will be prevented when we look to its key driver: gender inequality,” she said. “To prevent horrific crimes like the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon, what we, as a society, must do is keep working to address the power imbalances, attitudes and behaviours that lead to violence against women and their children in the first place.

“There is so much good work already being done to challenge the dangerous stereotypes that drive gendered violence, and teach our children about healthy, respectful relationships from a young age. Horrendous crimes like this show us how important it is that we keep working toward a future where women can live without fear of violence.”

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Comments like Kinnersly’s have been echoed by findings from Victoria’s royal commission into family violence which had extensive coverage in the media, largely thanks to advocates such as Rosie Batty. A key finding of the commission was that gender inequality and community attitudes underpinned violence perpetrated against women.

And yet when a woman was killed, authorities still sometimes resorted to messages that women should take more personal responsibility, a professor of social work, Cathy Humphreys, said.

“I feel a bit despairing about the police reaction,” Humphreys said.

“This is a men’s problem and we need men to be stepping up. We need men to be actively supporting respectful relationships and a non-violent agenda.

“It doesn’t mean we need more and more police at every park corner. What we need to do is examine why men think any woman walking around is fair game. That’s not a policing problem, it’s a social problem.”

Alex Lee (@alex_c_lee) My first stand up set when I was the same age as Eurydice Dixon, was about being afraid walking home at night. Making jokes about it was a way to feel slightly empowered instead of small and frightened. Mourning for this young comedian who was entitled to feel safe.

Change takes time. In the absence of total equality and as education and respectful relationships programs are rolled out in schools, is it fair enough for police to urge women to keep themselves safe in the aftermath of a brutal crime?



“I don’t think so,” said Dr Laura Tarzia, of the University of Melbourne’s Research Alliance to End Violence against Women and their Children.

Clementine Ford (@clementine_ford) 1. Some thoughts. It was not a lack of ‘situational awareness’ that ended the life of Eurydice Dixon - it was a person who made a conscious choice to exercise extreme violence against her. #eurydicedixon

“Women already know. They’re not careless, they’re constantly policing their own behaviour and doing all the so-called ‘right things’. The message around behaviour needs to be directed at men.”

• If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au