W
Whistleblower
Guest
Keep your testosterone levels under control, you roadie warriors & velodrones. Cycling is for life,
not for beating your wife.
----
World champ to wife beater By ROBYN RILEY 18may03 FATE seemed to have dealt Joanne Pate a winning
hand. On her first visit to a velodrome in 1985, she caught the eye of one of the sport's rising
stars. Stephen Pate was ruggedly handsome and on his way to becoming a world champion. Joanne was a
shy teenager flattered by his attention.
It was love at first sight and soon she left her home in Tasmania and moved to Melbourne to be with
the man of her dreams.
They married and had three children, but unlike the fairytales, there was no happy ending to
this story.
The final act was played out in the Melbourne County Court earlier this month when Stephen Pate, 39,
was jailed for assaulting and threatening to kill her.
Now Joanne, 36, is trying to put the nightmare of years of abuse behind her. It won't be easy.
This week, she gave a chilling account of how her husband "prepared" the house when he was going to
abuse her.
"He would send the children upstairs and then walk around closing windows and blinds and shutting
the doors, so the neighbours couldn't hear," she recalled.
Then the beatings would begin.
Pate pleaded guilty to assault and threatening to kill his wife. Judge John Barnett said the
cyclist, shackled with the disappointment of being left out of the Sydney 2000 Olympic team, turned
to alcohol, with ugly consequences.
"It was made to appear that this was a crime of passion, but the abuse had been going on our whole
relationship," Joanne said.
"Missing out on the Olympic team did make him angry, but then everything made Stephen angry.
"I'd start scratching at my face whenever he came in, my hair was falling out. I couldn't stand it
and finally I called the police. I just wanted him taken away."
All the mental and physical abuse Joanne suffered, all the pain, fear and despair were encapsulated
in one night last November, a few days after their 13th wedding anniversary.
Pate arrived home and, although he'd had a few drinks, he wasn't drunk. He went to have a bath and
told Joanne he wanted to talk to her. She was preparing dinner, but went into the bathroom.
"Then my daughter came in and said she needed her asthma pump, so I went to get it. Stephen asked me
what I was doing. I told him and he was angry.
"That's how it started."
She said he started throwing things.
"My eldest daughter, Courtney, was at a friend's place but Paige and Georgia were home,"
Joanne said.
"I tried to placate him, settle him down. But then he started closing the windows and curtains and
doors. He does that.
"He was screaming and yelling at me and I could tell he was just getting angrier and angrier. It
went from there.
"I knew it was going to be bad."
Joanne told her husband she was going to call the police and locked herself in the bedroom.
"He kicked the door in. I didn't realise that if you dial 000 the call can be traced, so I figured I
didn't get through before he smashed the phone and started hitting me.
"He hits me where people can't see it, through my hair and things like that."
Joanne broke free and ran from the house to try to call the police again. By the time she returned
home, they were already at the house. The police could see her clothes had been ripped and there was
blood on her face. Stephen was arrested.
"I thought that was the end of it," she said.
Exhausted, she went to bed. Later that night, Joanne heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"I couldn't believe that he was out and still angry enough to come back and have it out with me,"
she said. "He was yelling at me. Stephen couldn't understand what he had done wrong."
"I was too scared to move. He was busy making sure the lights were off in case the police drove by
to see if he was there."
He started yelling and hitting Joanne again and then he threw his wedding ring at her.
"Then he pulled the knife out from his jumper and he walked over to me and he held it there, at my
throat," she said.
"People ask me why I didn't fight back. He would just have hit me harder."
She said that after he had run the blade across her throat, he wiped the knife and put it in
a wardrobe.
"Stephen was cunning. He wiped it because it would have no prints on it," she said. "Basically
what he was saying to me was that it would come down to my word against his that he had come back
that night."
But then he ordered her out of the house.
"I just ran. I had my pyjamas on and was running to a phone box and I could hear him in his car,
following me.
"To get to the phone box, I had to cross a road and I kept thinking, 'if I step on the road, will he
run me over?' But it was the only way I could get to where I needed to go.
"I didn't want to run into someone's house. I didn't want to take this to them.
"So I was running up the road and he was driving up the wrong side of the road, trying to get me
into the car.
"I got to the phone box and picked up the phone and he was parked just near there, saying 'I am
going to get you for this'.
"He got out of the car, so I hung up and ran. I should have left the phone off the hook so the
operator could hear, but I didn't. Then the police came down the street. They couldn't believe he
had turned up again.
"I had to go with my girls to a safe motel until they found him, because they didn't know if Stephen
was going to come back again."
Joanne knew that night the marriage was finally over. She said: "I probably wanted him out a lot
longer than that, the abuse was just all the time."
As she tells her story, Joanne is sitting in their Melbourne home; it is in a quiet street in a nice
suburb, a double-storey house on a big block with a Mercedes in the drive.
But appearances can deceive. The car is damaged, the front grill gone and the driver's door dented.
Inside, there are chilling signs of violence. The walls are damaged where Joanne says Stephen, in
his rage, punched through the plaster and kicked in the doors.
"It is a constant reminder," Joanne admitted.
Her eyes filled with tears as she said: "I don't have people come to my house because this is
all I have."
Joanne said her husband's abuse had become progressively worse over the years. But she excused his
violence again and again. Why?
She doesn't know, although she lacked the support to break away.
"I had moved to Melbourne on my own with no family and he was a big star," she said.
"I just loved him and the person he could be at times. That was it.
"I brought charges up against him one other time and it almost got to court, but he begged me not to
because the media would find out. I had to withdraw the charges.
"Any woman reading this would ask why and think I am weird.
"That particular time, I walked to my girlfriend's place and she took me to the Magistrate's Court
and the judge said 'I think I know your husband, is he a cyclist?' I said yes.
"Then he said, 'He has a big race meeting coming up this weekend and is probably under a lot of
stress. Things are not going well and I suggest you just go back home'.
"I told my friend and she said 'you can't, you just can't'.
"I said 'I can't go back to my home'. I took the children to a women's shelter.
"That was the trouble - because Stephen was a well-known cyclist, a world champion, I thought people
would not believe me and would side with him.
"I feel as though I am alone with this and that's probably my doing, because I didn't really want
anyone knowing what had happened to me.
"I don't know why. I didn't even tell my own mother. Even the people I work with don't know who I
am. To them I am just Joanne."
She said she read a booklet on domestic violence and realised "every single thing was me".
"When it hits you in the face on a piece of paper, it is very confronting," Joanne said.
"I mean, I live in a nice suburb in a nice house and I have a car; a lot of women in the shelter had
a lot less than me, but in the end we were all the same."
Joanne said her husband simply wouldn't leave her alone.
"If you ask anyone, they will say Stephen loved me very much, but it was the control," she said.
Early in February, he asked Joanne to take him back. She refused and told him she no longer wanted
him in her life.
On February 10, Joanne came home from a walk to find Stephen at the house. He wouldn't leave and,
according to Joanne, started smashing things. He left only after she threatened to call the police.
"I went to call the police and he bailed me up and said 'I'll go now if you promise on the kids'
life you won't call the police'. I said OK.
"I was beside myself because I knew that if I didn't do something, he would just keep doing
it," she said.
She was right. The next day, Stephen returned at 6.30 am, banging on the front door and demanding to
be let in.
"I was really frightened. He went to the back door and there was a broken window and suddenly he was
in the house and yelling," she said.
"He was ranting and raving and came into the bedroom. He had a go at the children for not letting
him in, calling them everything.
"It is hard, because his ego or anger gets the better of him."
Joanne knew she had to get him out of her life forever. Now all she wants is a fresh start for
herself and her daughters.
"I want us to leave this house. Anywhere but here," she said.
not for beating your wife.
----
World champ to wife beater By ROBYN RILEY 18may03 FATE seemed to have dealt Joanne Pate a winning
hand. On her first visit to a velodrome in 1985, she caught the eye of one of the sport's rising
stars. Stephen Pate was ruggedly handsome and on his way to becoming a world champion. Joanne was a
shy teenager flattered by his attention.
It was love at first sight and soon she left her home in Tasmania and moved to Melbourne to be with
the man of her dreams.
They married and had three children, but unlike the fairytales, there was no happy ending to
this story.
The final act was played out in the Melbourne County Court earlier this month when Stephen Pate, 39,
was jailed for assaulting and threatening to kill her.
Now Joanne, 36, is trying to put the nightmare of years of abuse behind her. It won't be easy.
This week, she gave a chilling account of how her husband "prepared" the house when he was going to
abuse her.
"He would send the children upstairs and then walk around closing windows and blinds and shutting
the doors, so the neighbours couldn't hear," she recalled.
Then the beatings would begin.
Pate pleaded guilty to assault and threatening to kill his wife. Judge John Barnett said the
cyclist, shackled with the disappointment of being left out of the Sydney 2000 Olympic team, turned
to alcohol, with ugly consequences.
"It was made to appear that this was a crime of passion, but the abuse had been going on our whole
relationship," Joanne said.
"Missing out on the Olympic team did make him angry, but then everything made Stephen angry.
"I'd start scratching at my face whenever he came in, my hair was falling out. I couldn't stand it
and finally I called the police. I just wanted him taken away."
All the mental and physical abuse Joanne suffered, all the pain, fear and despair were encapsulated
in one night last November, a few days after their 13th wedding anniversary.
Pate arrived home and, although he'd had a few drinks, he wasn't drunk. He went to have a bath and
told Joanne he wanted to talk to her. She was preparing dinner, but went into the bathroom.
"Then my daughter came in and said she needed her asthma pump, so I went to get it. Stephen asked me
what I was doing. I told him and he was angry.
"That's how it started."
She said he started throwing things.
"My eldest daughter, Courtney, was at a friend's place but Paige and Georgia were home,"
Joanne said.
"I tried to placate him, settle him down. But then he started closing the windows and curtains and
doors. He does that.
"He was screaming and yelling at me and I could tell he was just getting angrier and angrier. It
went from there.
"I knew it was going to be bad."
Joanne told her husband she was going to call the police and locked herself in the bedroom.
"He kicked the door in. I didn't realise that if you dial 000 the call can be traced, so I figured I
didn't get through before he smashed the phone and started hitting me.
"He hits me where people can't see it, through my hair and things like that."
Joanne broke free and ran from the house to try to call the police again. By the time she returned
home, they were already at the house. The police could see her clothes had been ripped and there was
blood on her face. Stephen was arrested.
"I thought that was the end of it," she said.
Exhausted, she went to bed. Later that night, Joanne heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
"I couldn't believe that he was out and still angry enough to come back and have it out with me,"
she said. "He was yelling at me. Stephen couldn't understand what he had done wrong."
"I was too scared to move. He was busy making sure the lights were off in case the police drove by
to see if he was there."
He started yelling and hitting Joanne again and then he threw his wedding ring at her.
"Then he pulled the knife out from his jumper and he walked over to me and he held it there, at my
throat," she said.
"People ask me why I didn't fight back. He would just have hit me harder."
She said that after he had run the blade across her throat, he wiped the knife and put it in
a wardrobe.
"Stephen was cunning. He wiped it because it would have no prints on it," she said. "Basically
what he was saying to me was that it would come down to my word against his that he had come back
that night."
But then he ordered her out of the house.
"I just ran. I had my pyjamas on and was running to a phone box and I could hear him in his car,
following me.
"To get to the phone box, I had to cross a road and I kept thinking, 'if I step on the road, will he
run me over?' But it was the only way I could get to where I needed to go.
"I didn't want to run into someone's house. I didn't want to take this to them.
"So I was running up the road and he was driving up the wrong side of the road, trying to get me
into the car.
"I got to the phone box and picked up the phone and he was parked just near there, saying 'I am
going to get you for this'.
"He got out of the car, so I hung up and ran. I should have left the phone off the hook so the
operator could hear, but I didn't. Then the police came down the street. They couldn't believe he
had turned up again.
"I had to go with my girls to a safe motel until they found him, because they didn't know if Stephen
was going to come back again."
Joanne knew that night the marriage was finally over. She said: "I probably wanted him out a lot
longer than that, the abuse was just all the time."
As she tells her story, Joanne is sitting in their Melbourne home; it is in a quiet street in a nice
suburb, a double-storey house on a big block with a Mercedes in the drive.
But appearances can deceive. The car is damaged, the front grill gone and the driver's door dented.
Inside, there are chilling signs of violence. The walls are damaged where Joanne says Stephen, in
his rage, punched through the plaster and kicked in the doors.
"It is a constant reminder," Joanne admitted.
Her eyes filled with tears as she said: "I don't have people come to my house because this is
all I have."
Joanne said her husband's abuse had become progressively worse over the years. But she excused his
violence again and again. Why?
She doesn't know, although she lacked the support to break away.
"I had moved to Melbourne on my own with no family and he was a big star," she said.
"I just loved him and the person he could be at times. That was it.
"I brought charges up against him one other time and it almost got to court, but he begged me not to
because the media would find out. I had to withdraw the charges.
"Any woman reading this would ask why and think I am weird.
"That particular time, I walked to my girlfriend's place and she took me to the Magistrate's Court
and the judge said 'I think I know your husband, is he a cyclist?' I said yes.
"Then he said, 'He has a big race meeting coming up this weekend and is probably under a lot of
stress. Things are not going well and I suggest you just go back home'.
"I told my friend and she said 'you can't, you just can't'.
"I said 'I can't go back to my home'. I took the children to a women's shelter.
"That was the trouble - because Stephen was a well-known cyclist, a world champion, I thought people
would not believe me and would side with him.
"I feel as though I am alone with this and that's probably my doing, because I didn't really want
anyone knowing what had happened to me.
"I don't know why. I didn't even tell my own mother. Even the people I work with don't know who I
am. To them I am just Joanne."
She said she read a booklet on domestic violence and realised "every single thing was me".
"When it hits you in the face on a piece of paper, it is very confronting," Joanne said.
"I mean, I live in a nice suburb in a nice house and I have a car; a lot of women in the shelter had
a lot less than me, but in the end we were all the same."
Joanne said her husband simply wouldn't leave her alone.
"If you ask anyone, they will say Stephen loved me very much, but it was the control," she said.
Early in February, he asked Joanne to take him back. She refused and told him she no longer wanted
him in her life.
On February 10, Joanne came home from a walk to find Stephen at the house. He wouldn't leave and,
according to Joanne, started smashing things. He left only after she threatened to call the police.
"I went to call the police and he bailed me up and said 'I'll go now if you promise on the kids'
life you won't call the police'. I said OK.
"I was beside myself because I knew that if I didn't do something, he would just keep doing
it," she said.
She was right. The next day, Stephen returned at 6.30 am, banging on the front door and demanding to
be let in.
"I was really frightened. He went to the back door and there was a broken window and suddenly he was
in the house and yelling," she said.
"He was ranting and raving and came into the bedroom. He had a go at the children for not letting
him in, calling them everything.
"It is hard, because his ego or anger gets the better of him."
Joanne knew she had to get him out of her life forever. Now all she wants is a fresh start for
herself and her daughters.
"I want us to leave this house. Anywhere but here," she said.
