FOR the first few years of her relationship, Siobhan Kent did not have an inkling that things would later turn so bad. That one day she could turn up to work with her arms marked with bruises and her spirit battered.

Her partner was someone she thought she would spend her life with. ''He was the love of my life, I thought we were going to get married eventually,'' she says. ''It was fine for the first few years or so, I was working in media and PR [public relations] and he had a good career going also, we were living by the beach and doing other ventures on the side.''

Siobhan Kent thought her partner was the love of her life, until the emotional and physical violence began. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Siobhan, who was living in Sydney when she met him, gave up her career to pursue a shared dream together. They uprooted their lives to start a business in Queensland and threw themselves into the new endeavour.

''We were seen as the couple who had it all, we had everything anyone could ever want together.''