Jacqui and Emily feared their partners would kill them during pregnancy

She wants to share her story as a survivor of domestic violence during pregnancy, a time known to be of heightened risk for the onset or escalation of partner violence.

"He wanted to kill us both," Jacqui said in an interview with The Canberra Times.

"Too many women are dying or being close to dying. I'm at least here to be able to talk about it."

Emily, a pseudonym, was heavily pregnant and aged 16 when she was raped by her then-partner, Lachlan John Smith. She says she is lucky to be alive.

Now an adult, Emily looks back at that period of her life and remembers coercive and "intensely manipulative" abuse throughout their relationship, which, despite only being together for a year, "felt like a whole lifetime".

"If I didn't get out of there, I would be dead. He would've ended up killing me and my daughter," she said.

Both women have consented to either being named outright or being identifiable through the naming of their domestic violence abusers.

In 2022, Jacqui was driving at 110kmh when her then-partner, Andrew Caust, reached across and jerked the steering wheel.

The car veered onto a median strip, and on that night, it was her defensive driving skills that saved her life and that of her unborn child.

Motor racing legend Peter Brock had taught Jacqui's mother how to drive, and these lessons were passed down.

"It was really easy for me to go into defensive driving tactics, but I have multiple friends that don't have that skill, and they would have been hurt," Jacqui said.

In April 2025, Caust was jailed before ACT Magistrates Court for endangering life and interfering with a motor vehicle.

As he was being escorted out of the courtroom and to the cells, Jacqui says he blew her a kiss.

"[Caust] needs to be stopped," she said.

"People need to know who he is.

"A lot of it is my anger at the law ... f--- the court system for the fact that it took three years."

She says she prepared for Caust to be sentenced numerous times, but this was continually delayed when he didn't show up, arrived late or "done a run off from court".

Jacqui said this impacted not just her, but her daughter's life, in not being able to meet her paternal grandparents until she felt safe with him behind bars.

Now the clock is ticking until he is eligible for parole in August 2026. While it is almost a year away, Jacqui is already making plans to ensure the safety of her and her daughter.

This includes changing her appearance so she is not readily identifiable if she runs into Caust in the community.

Despite loving "colourful, flowy, hippydom, spiritual, fairy wear", Jacqui wears clothes she believes will help her blend in.

"Because an abuser will know these things about you," she said.

Throughout their relationship, Jacqui said Caust cut her down "bit by bit".

"It just shaved little bits off of me, and then I was nothing, and the only thing that brought that back was the fact that I had a kid.

"Having a kid to your abuser should not be what gets you out."

Emily says her abuser smirked and laughed while his jail sentence was being handed down.

In December 2021, Smith, who was 18 at the time, forced the 16-year-old, 34-week pregnant victim to commit a sexual act on him, despite her pleading with him to stop.

Emily told the ACT Supreme Court earlier this year that this deliberate sexual abuse "destroyed parts of me I am still trying to put back together".

Speaking to The Canberra Times, she said Smith "doesn't care what he did, and he will do it again".

Emily detailed Smith isolating her from her family and described being "brainwashed" by his manipulation and coercion.

She said that during her pregnancy, she was constantly covered in bruises "everywhere underneath my shirts and my pants, and I even had a bite mark on my arm for quite some time".

Stories like Jacqui's and Emily's are sadly not out of the ordinary, with data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showing pregnancy and the months after birth are a time of heightened risk of domestic violence.

The national agency also found that the risk of intimate partner homicide may be greater for people who experience violence during pregnancy.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' personal safety survey found that one in seven women who experienced violence by a current partner and were pregnant during the relationship experienced violence during their pregnancy.

It also found that one in eight women experienced violence for the first time during pregnancy.

Criminologist and research fellow at the Australian National University, Dr Hayley Boxall, said there were multiple theories about why pregnancy was a higher risk time for women to experience intimate partner violence.

"There's some suggestion that it's because the woman's attention is taken away from their partner, and so their partner feels threatened, and they start to use violence as a way of getting the attention back on them," Dr Boxall said.

She said another theory was that pregnancy comes with "more relationship conflicts".

Thirdly, if a partner was already controlling in the relationship, he may become more so "under the guise of protecting the baby".

Dr Boxall explained there was no clear evidence to support one mechanism, but these were common situations reported by victims.

She said abuse during pregnancy was linked to low birth weight, and research also showed that women pass anxiety and distress onto their babies in utero.

This national data is reflected in the ACT, with multiple cases involving violence or alleged violence towards pregnant partners going through the court system.

In June 2024, Brendan Lionel Howe avoided time behind bars for repeatedly assaulting his partner, twice when she was heavily pregnant.

Among his crimes, the successful builder and director of Homes by Howe forcibly held his eight-month-pregnant wife against a wall, aggressively berated her and referred to their unborn child as "that little c--- inside of you", among other verbal abuse. Howe also threatened to kill her if she left him.

A different man, who has not been named to protect the identity of the victim, is accused of repeatedly kicking his pregnant partner in the stomach in an effort to abort the baby.

Another man has been jailed for more than five years after he repeatedly attacked his heavily pregnant partner in what a magistrate called "gratuitous violence" that is "almost unspeakable".

As a result of the repeated and demeaning abuse she suffered a bloody nose, black eyes, bruises, swelling and two chipped teeth, among other injuries.

The mother fears that when the father of her children is released from jail, "he will hunt me down with the intent of ending my life".