The shocking scars left behind by domestic violence - and a survivor's message
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: A Perth grandmother has survived an unimaginable 24-hour ordeal in her home, where she was held captive and had her throat slashed.
The man who attacked Rachele Godsall was the man she loved - her long-term partner.
Last Tuesday Rachele was literally 30 seconds from death, but despite what she has endured, she says she doesn't hate him.
In a shocking attack, Rachele's partner "just grabbed the knife and he just looked at me and cut my throat," she recalls.
"And then he did it three more times, and I think once he's seen the blood spurting out - I was holding onto my throat - he kind of got off me," she says.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Rachele was left for dead at her Seville Grove home by her long-term partner, Brad Petterson.
"I just kept thinking that I wanted to see my kids and my granddaughter," she remembers.
The grandmother says she endured years of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of her partner.
She says she had stayed because she loved him, and because "when he was good, he was good."
But last week the 45-year-old finally built up the courage to say she was leaving.
After Brad slashed Rachele's throat and windpipe, he wrote on Facebook: "Love is evol... I showed ya time to go now... ( goodbye life. )"
Hours later Brad crashed Rachele's car and died.
The whole ordeal had started 24 hours earlier when Brad hit her in the mouth.
"It felt like I'd dislocated my jaw," she says.
"[He] made me sit on the floor and tied my hands behind my back and tied my feet together.
"He put a gag in my mouth."
Brad wrapped Rachele in a blanket and drove her into bushland, where he tried to drug her with sleeping tablets.
Somehow, she managed to talk him out of it, convincing him not to hurt her.
Brad eventually took Rachele home, but she knew she had to get away.
Rachele says she doesn't hate Brad and hopes he is "at peace".
From her bed at Royal Perth's State Trauma Unit, Rachele has this message for women.
"The help is there - sometimes you've just got to have the balls to go and get it."
A fund has been set up to help Rachele, who can't work and now doesn't have a car.
Details here.
Crisis Help is available 24 hours a day. Trained counsellors are ready to take calls at Lifeline on 13 11 14, Samaritans on 135 247 or 1800 RESPECT.
