Sydney - Aboriginal women in the far-north Australian town of Katherine have faces "like a squashed tomato" because of frequent beatings by their partners, a magistrate said Thursday. Alisdair McGregor made the observation when sentencing an Aboriginal man who assaulted his partner when they were both under arrest and in the back of a police vehicle.
National broadcaster ABC quoted him as telling the Darwin Magistrates Court that while Aboriginal men in Katherine had symmetrical faces, "so many of the women have faces more or less like a squashed tomato" as a consequence of domestic violence.
"This is repeated thumpings, punchings, bashings, kickings, hitting with rocks, hitting with sticks," McGregor said. "And some of these women are so ugly that one has to wonder what sort of a selfless thing that women can have, yet they persevere. Some stick with their men."
Aborigines, who are less than 2 per cent of Australia's population, are six times as likely to be murdered as other Australians and twice as likely to be hospitalized with injuries in assaults. They are five times more likely to be the victims of domestic violence.
