Neighbours had heard a woman crying at the house on McGill Street.

In the first few days of December 2019, things “got bad again” behind the high fences at the property south of Ipswich. The abuse became more frequent. A man’s voice screaming; a woman sobbing, trying to calm him, pleading to be left alone.

On 8 December came the sound of the man shouting: “Get up, you dog. Come on, get up.”

Two days later the body of Kardell Lomas, a 31-year-old Kamilaroi and Mununjali woman, was found by police in the boot of an old car in the back yard. She was six months pregnant.

“For years after, Kardell’s death didn’t sit well with me,” says her younger brother, Adair Lomas. “It felt like the system had failed her.”

In the months before her death, Kardell repeatedly sought help – from domestic v

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