❤️HER NAME IS MARY BENEDITO❤️
“Women are still dying. Women are still faced with so much trauma and hurt and pain because of men who have not fixed themselves.”
Josiah Benedito-Taotafa spoke these words outside of court this week, not long after his cousin’s killer was jailed for her murder.
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Her name is Mary Benedito. She was only 25. Reo Te Whetu Marama Marsh bashed and strangled Mary while she was on holiday on the Gold Coast in Queensland on November 27, 2021.
She died in hospital three days later when her loved ones had to decide to turn her life support off.
Marsh was sentenced to live in prison but will be eligible for parole in less than 16 years.
Mary’s death was one of more than 50 Australian femicides I documented that year. Since her death, the femicide toll has continued to climb. The only thing changing is the death toll.
Mary had left Marsh and was focused on living a new life with her son. She had every right to form bonds with other people, whether they were intimate partners or not.
Marsh killed Mary in an act of control – if he couldn’t have her, no one would. It’s a tale as old as time and one that simply does not shift from the unwritten rule that men own women. That women have no agency over their lives.
“I want men to call out shitty behaviours with their friends,” Josiah said.
“I want men to grow some balls and start doing better with their communities.”
Josiah described Mary as funny, confident in her values and deeply compassionate.
“My family has seen their faith shaken, their health decline and a collective struggle to navigate grief, shock and trauma,” he said.
Mary’s Aunt Maria said there was no end to the pain her family would feel for a lifetime.
“Seeing her black and blue with tubes keeping her alive broke our family into pieces,” she said.
MARY BENEDITO MATTERS! ❤️
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