Wendy Davis was attacked by the Claremont Serial Killer and survived. In 2020, after the longest and most expensive trial in West Australian history, Bradley Robert Edwards was convicted of two of the Claremont Serial Killings, a series of unsolved murders that had haunted the state since the mid-1990s. But before he went to trial, before he started killing, Edwards violently assaulted a social worker while working on the telephone system at Hollywood Hospital. Not only did Edwards keep his job at Telstra (providing the perfect car and cover for his later misdeeds) but he was only convicted of common assault for the attack, a minor charge that left him off the police radar during their desperate hunt for the sexual predator responsible for the Claremont murders. Begun as a way to deal with the resurgence of trauma that engulfed her after Edwards’ arrest, Davis’ memoir looks at the pressure on women to minimise and excuse certain behaviours in others. Among a sea of commentary by journalists, law enforcement agencies and technical experts, Wendy’s voice represents the women Edwards preyed upon. Her story demonstrates the devastating consequences of not making a fuss.
