GRAPHIC WARNING: This story contains details some readers might find confronting.
A Perth mother has fled the country over fears her and her children’s lives are at risk from a serial domestic violence offender.
Chloe Wright’s former partner Guy Leslie Cramp was granted bail by a Western Australia court despite pleading guilty to an attack that was caught on CCTV and left the mum-of-three with black eyes and a broken nose.
Wright was repeatedly punched in the face and thrown to the ground in one incident by her then partner, while he held their nine-week-old baby in his arms.
“You can’t do anything when someone is holding your newborn,” she told 9News.
The vicious assault, which started in the backyard and was caught on camera, then continued inside her home.
“Inside my nose is collapsed and I can’t breathe properly now,” she said.
Cramp pleaded guilty to the attack and had been behind bars since his arrest until last month, when a WA court granted him bail.
Wright said that decision forced her to flee the country with her three kids.
“I will not come back to Australia until he is sentenced, I will not become another statistic,” she said.
The magistrate found Cramp met the exceptional circumstances needed for bail, allowing him to walk free and participate in a family violence program, which can’t be done inside prison.
Wright said she was left in “disbelief that someone can plead guilty, all the footage be there, pictures of my face, everything that we’ve been through and a judge can sit there and let him on bail”.
“How is that possible?” she said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by opposition prevention of family and domestic violence spokesperson Libby Mettam.
“What does this thug actually have to do to be locked up?” she asked.
Prosecutors opposed his bail, telling the magistrate Cramp had “a significant history … of violence … including assault … disorderly behaviour and … occasioning bodily harm”.
Police argued that “he posed a risk to the victim and the community at large with the risk of reoffending … demonstrated by his history”.
The 15-year history includes convictions for assaulting two other women and attacking a taxi driver.
A warrant for Cramp’s arrest was issued yesterday after he failed to appear in court, and the 33-year-old handed himself in this morning.
Despite the breach, tonight he’s still a free man after the courts granted him bail again.
“If he can do that holding our nine-week-old baby, he can do anything,” Wright said.
“How many women have to die?”
