![]() He had spent half his adult life in prison for violent crimes. In 1996, during a violent stabbing spree, Abbott killed a woman and injured two others, including his then-partner. In court that day, her family learned Abbott had previously killed another woman. In April, he was sentenced to 25 years for the murder of Ms Rubuntja. ![]() Ms Rubuntja died of catastrophic injuries.įour Corners can reveal that although Northern Territory Police had been called 18 times over the course of their two-year relationship, Abbott had never been charged with offences related to her allegations that he had been abusive. He then deliberately lined her up and drove directly into her, accelerating and reversing over her multiple times, dragging her around the car park. Ms Rubuntja sat down on the footpath as Abbott began to circle the car park, calling out to her. "I believe she went to the hospital because she believed it would be safe," Dr Brown says. Just before 9pm, when Abbott pulled into a service station, Ms Rubuntja managed to get away and walk across the street towards the Alice Springs Hospital. Do you know more?Ĭontact Suzanne Dredge following contains confronting descriptions of violence. Ms Rubuntja told her daughter over the phone that Abbott was "half killing her". Her abusive partner was waiting outside and the pair drove around town. But not long after, the club also ordered her to leave. When she told a security guard she felt frightened, Abbott was kicked out. Over several hours, he terrorised and shouted at her, demanding she hand over money she'd won at the pokies. On a hot afternoon in January 2021, Ms Rubuntja and Abbott went out to meet relatives at a club. But she did it anyway," Dr Brown says.īut while Ms Rubuntja was working tirelessly to keep other women safe, few people close to her knew that her new partner, a man named Malcolm Abbott, had begun abusing her. "She was standing up strong against family violence … often at great personal cost, because she'd lived through and survived domestic and family violence before. Ms Rubuntja's friend, Chay Brown, says it showed her strength of character. She was trying her best to change things," her daughter Sarah Rubuntja says. "She was so excited and she came and said, 'Oh I went to Canberra. They staged an emotional sit-down inside Parliament House, trying to get federal politicians to do something. In 2018, she went all the way to Canberra with a small collective of grandmothers known as the Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group. Her home was a safe space for women who had been assaulted. "It's gotta stop, it's not only for me, it's for everyone, stop the violence," Ms Rubuntja told a documentary filmmaker in 2017. She was speaking out about the severe levels of violence in Central Australia, where close to 70 Aboriginal women have been killed in the past two decades. Ms R Rubuntja, a funny and fiery mum and grandmother, had begun using her own story of survival to raise the alarm in her hometown of Alice Springs. You may not know her name, but you should. ( Four Corners: Georgina Piper) She fought to keep others safe
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