It was such an extreme case of bullying that police would later investigate it using Brodie’s Law. The legislation that criminalised serious bullying was introduced in 2011 after the suicide of Brodie Panlock, a 19-year-old who was subjected to relentless bullying at a cafe where she worked. The law, the result of a campaign by her parents Damian and Rae Panlock, has seen more than 40 people charged since January 2012 and more than 140 offences reported to police about bullying in various sectors including workplaces, schools and even in the family home. The last two years have seen a spike in the number of charges after a push within Victoria Police to utilise the law, including the use of intervention orders for bullying. "We saw a gradual shift," Superintendent Murray Fraser said. "We actually got the Brodie’s Law awareness into our training programs. It’s really a matter of raising awareness amongst our police about the legislation, so I’m hoping, now, it’s almost part of business as usual."

The Panlocks said they knew the laws would take time to take effect, but significant work still needed to be done to raise awareness of the legislation and the devastating impact bullying can have, calling for more support at government level. A law was created in Brodie Panlock's name to bring bullies to justice. “People need to understand their rights. That you have got rights and you don’t have to put up with these sorts of things and it’s not acceptable,” Mr Panlock said. When Brodie’s Law has been used, like in Nicholas’ case, it can be life-saving. Mr Myintoo had noticed her son had changed from the quiet, goofy boy who loved to play video games with his mates.

“He really withdrew. He became very angry all of the time and I thought it was just part of getting up so early,” she said. She remembers noticing bruises on his body when he got out of the shower and she remembers a burn on his arm. “He told me some story about being up in the roof. I remember asking him 50 questions about it and he was like ‘Don’t worry about it, just forget it’, then he’d get angry with me,” she said. “He changed, big time, from the boy that left school - the moody teenage boy that you’d still get a conversation out of - to not being able to recognise him. “He had lost his purpose.”

It reached a boiling point and Nicholas texted her during the day: “I can’t do this anymore...I’ve got to quit, I’ve got to quit”. When he got home that night, he showed his mum the relentlessly abusive texts his boss had sent him. “You’re f***ed,” was one text his boss sent when he tried to call in sick. “Are you in tomorrow so I can organise labour! You f*** me up today!!! Lazy c***.” "If I come out and things are not done you will get a scone."

He then opened up about the assaults. “I just remembered this isn’t real, this isn’t real," his mother said. "I lost it, not at him, just at this man. This is my son, I’ve protected him all these years from people like him and here was this man, who was my husband’s friend ... I feel guilty that I dropped him off there every day, oblivious to what was going on.” Nicholas quit after his disclosure and his mother took him to a doctor, which kicked-off a WorkSafe and then, a police investigation. By this point, Nicholas - sleepless because of nightmares and suffering from crippling post-traumatic stress disorder - was on suicide watch. “He thought he must be worthless, that he must be useless, that he let his parents down and he didn’t see the point of living. That’s when my nightmare began,” Ms Myintoo said.

Hope came when Nicholas’ boss, Tommy Liu, was charged with three sets of stalking offences, which, in a last minute plea bargain, saw him sentenced for stalking with intent to cause mental harm. Jodie Myintoo pushed for justice for her son Nicholas, pictured in the background. Credit:Eddie Jim Prosecutor Ross Treverton read aloud Nicholas’ powerful victim impact statement in the Frankston Magistrates Court last August. “My family trusted this man. I remember my Mum telling Tommy one Easter ‘Thank you for taking my son on’. I wanted to scream ‘This man abuses me daily, Mum'!” "I am not sure of my future. I feel useless as I was told daily. I feel inadequate to this world. I lock myself away. My mum does not let that happen. I trust no one."

He wanted to end his life, Nicholas wrote, and he felt he had let his family down. “I wanted an apprenticeship, I wanted to make my mum and step-dad proud. This man alone was too much,” he wrote. “This is my first ever job, I had no idea this is what a boss does to someone ... I just want to feel normal again.” Mr Liu's barrister told the court the behaviour his client inflicted on his apprentice was the same Mr Liu endured himself when he first started. “It was commonplace. That importantly, does not justify it and we are no longer in an era where this behaviour should be tolerated,” he said.

Mr Liu, who had no criminal history, was sentenced to a 15-month community corrections order with no conviction recorded. He is still able to work and take on apprentices. The regulating body, Energy Safe Victoria, cannot take action unless an electrician is convicted for a crime and jailed for more than six months. And WorkSafe, who had issued him with improvement notices, withdrew its investigation after police were able to prove a criminal case. What the court case did do, she said, was empower Nicholas. The now 21-year-old still battles PTSD and is re-training to go back to work. He cannot, Ms Myintoo says, go back to a trade. He can barely stomach looking at a work site. But without Brodie’s Law, Ms Myintoo said she doesn’t know if her son would still be alive. “We would have not got justice. It helped knowing this man didn’t just get away with it, if there was nothing there, I don’t know whether he would be here today,” she said.