Ace News Desk – Lauren Trevan thought her husband was doing something nice for her when he bought her a new mobile phone and set up the device.
Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: May.24: 2024: ABC QLD News Report: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/YouMeUs2
“I turned to one of my friends and said, ‘Oh, my gosh. I think he’s tracking where I am’,” Ms Trevan told ABC News Breakfast.
“It did dawn on me that he was reading my messages. He also set up my email accounts as well.
“So he had access to all of those.”
It took Ms Trevan several attempts to leave the 15-year relationship with her two children but she never reported the abuse.
“I didn’t think there was any services or anything available to me because I didn’t see myself as any victim of abuse, because he never physically hit me,” she said.
Once she finally left, she said she still felt trapped because her ex-husband had so much digital access to her.
“I felt like I couldn’t get away from him even once I was away from him,” Ms Trevan said.
“A friend took me to a Telstra shop that day and did the paperwork for me to get a new SIM card and all and set me up on my own new plan.
“So that’s how I actually got some level of freedom once I left him.”
Some 20,000 phones donated
A decade on, the Sunshine Coast mother helps ensure victim-survivors have digital freedom from their abusers.
She volunteers for Queensland charity, DV Safe Phone, which provides second-hand devices to help people in violent situations.
“Often in domestic violence the phone is the first thing broken or stolen by a perpetrator from the victim,” Ms Trevan said.
We repurpose old phones, we repair them, give them fresh screens, make sure they charge properly, a new battery if needed.
“We supply a new SIM card and also a new charging cable and then we send them out to frontline agencies that then distribute them to people who need them.”
The charity has collected more than 20,000 mobile phones left at donation points in the past four years.
Founder Ashton Wood said it began by “accident” when he was doing a clean-up at home during COVID-19 lockdowns.
“The only person I could think of who’d know what to do with [the unwanted items] was an ex-police senior sergeant who worked in domestic violence,” Mr Wood said.
“I said to her, ‘I’ve got a carload of stuff; where do I take it?’, and she said, ‘Ashton, what I need right now are mobile phones’.
“I went into my friends and asked them if they had a few phones in their drawers and, four years later, we’ve collected over 22,000 mobile phones.”
The group has supplied a safe phone to more than 8,100 victim-survivors.
Ms Trevan said the devices could save lives.
“Supplying someone with a phone really can be life-changing,” she said.
“It can help them not only set up their exit plan, but in a lifesaving emergency, it’s giving them access to contact emergency services.”
Digital abuse on the rise
Cyber security expert Alastair MacGibbon told ABC News Breakfast digital abuse in relationships was on the rise in Australia.
“We have more technology around us, more connected devices, which leads to more opportunities for an offender to misuse those devices,” Mr MacGibbon said.
“What we do see is people using connected technologies, largely men using them to menace or harass, threaten or control women.
“ We’re seeing it done in lots of ways, from tracking, to spying — whether it’s audio or visual — through to then sending abusive, constant messages.”
Perpetrators are also using their transaction descriptions in online banking platforms to send threatening messages to recipients.
Advice on protection measures
Mr MacGibbon, a former Australian Federal Police officer, said there were simple measures victim-survivors could take to ensure they were protected.
“They should go into the privacy settings of their device. They should turn off location services for the vast bulk of applications they’ve got,” he said.
“Delete apps that you don’t recognise, or that you don’t use.
“Perhaps consider upgrading your telephone [and] always make sure you’ve got the latest software, because that reduces some of the attack surface for what we call malicious code.”
Mr MacGibbon also recommended checking for other devices around the home.
“ Check, for example, toys that are given by the former partner to kids, because you find cameras hidden in teddy bears and other such things,” he said.
“It’s the type of stuff you see on movies that you wouldn’t believe happens in real life, but it does.”
He said most mobile phone devices had the ability to search for other devices around them that may be used for tracking.
“An iPhone tells me if there are other items that seem to be travelling around with me,” Mr MacGibbon said.
“So think about AirTags, or some other electronic device that’s always around that phone.
“In Samsung, they have an experimental app, which you have to download, which can look for other devices tracking with you.”
Police build ‘safe spaces’ to report abuse
The Queensland Police Service said more people were reporting domestic and family violence directly to their local station.
Domestic, Family Violence and Vulnerable Persons Unit Senior Sergeant Jonathan McBride said police stations throughout the state now had a dedicated “safe space” for people to report abuse.
The rooms have been designed to be more welcoming and include couches and children’s toys.
“That seems to be a government thing, that we make our buildings very sterile, and they’re not the most friendly of places,” Senior Sergeant McBride said.
“Obviously that in itself can be a barrier for disclosing what’s happened to people, so we’ve tried to soften that a bit as much as possible.”
Senior Sergeant McBride said it was important victim-survivors felt comfortable when disclosing domestic violence.
“I can reassure you, you will be believed. Please come forward and ask to have a private conversation,” he said.
“A police officer will tell you what your options are, and hopefully be able to give you protection if needed.”
Life now ‘sunshine and happiness’
Ms Trevan said sharing her story as part of Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month was important.
“For me now to be able to call out what coercive control is to help educate the public, that means more than anything,” she said.
“If I can help someone see what’s going on in their relationship is not healthy and if they can stop it before it really starts to escalate, that would be my dream.
“One woman every four days in Australia is being murdered by male violence. We’ve got to step up. It’s all of our problem.”
Ms Trevan said she was now in a loving and supportive relationship.
“There is a lot of sunshine and happiness in my life,” she said.
“I have learnt what it is like to have someone love me and I’m living my best life now.”
She also discusses her abuse with her two now-teenage children.
“They’re very supportive of me talking about domestic violence in my experiences,” Ms Trevan said.
“I just had to explain to them that if we don’t call these behaviours out, if we keep shoving them under the rug, nothing ever changes.”
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