A WOMAN who bravely waived her right to anonymity to speak out after being raped and strangled by her former partner has welcomed a landmark change in Jersey law – saying the new protections could help spare others the ordeal she endured.
Suzie Mahe became a campaigner for tighter protections for survivors – including the introduction of a standalone non-fatal strangulation law and emergency domestic abuse protection orders – after her former boyfriend Gavin Roberts was jailed in 2024 for a campaign of violence against her and another woman.
Reflecting on the passing of landmark legislation to combat violence against women and girls in the States Assembly yesterday (see opposite page), Ms Mahe said it was “amazing” to see change happen.
According to Ms Mahe, one of the most powerful new measures will be the introduction of emergency domestic abuse protection orders.
Police will be able to make 72-hour orders to ban alleged abusers from contacting their accuser. They can then seek permission for an order to be extended in court.
Such a measure might have given any previous partner of Roberts who may have felt under threat the comfort to make a report – meaning she may have never met him.
“It gives that little bit more freedom to come forward,” she said.
The States Assembly also opted to make non-fatal strangulation – which has been linked to serious abuse and to life-changing injuries – into a standalone offence. It was previously treated as grave and criminal assault.
After she was strangled, Ms Mahe explained that her throat was painful and felt hoarse.
She developed vocal chord dysfunction that left her unable to speak, and she was “in and out of hospital” as her breathing suffered.
Seeing the strangulation charged as grave and criminal assault was “very difficult to come to terms with”, she said. She considers the strangulation to have been attempted murder.
She added that training and education would still needed to help victims understand what they were going through.
And training would also be required for health professionals, she added, particularly when it comes to long-term care of survivors.
Ms Mahe said that, when she explained the abuse she had gone through to specialists, they “got a bit overwhelmed with that information” and tried treating her mental health rather than her physical symptoms.
After the package of laws were passed yesterday, Ms Mahe said she was delighted to have seen the change she had been campaigning for since Roberts’ conviction finally become a reality.
That campaigning has seen her speak out publicly, on the front-page of the JEP, in awareness-raising events locally, and even in Westminster.
But, all the time, she said that she had other survivors in mind.
“All I knew at the time was I didn’t want it to happen to somebody else,” she said.
