The latest women to allegedly die in a gender-based violence situation in Australia, was Emma Bates, a 49-year-old woman from the Victorian boarder town of Cobram. Today a man faced court, as tributes for Ms Bates continue to flow.
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00:00 Emma Bates, a daughter, a sister, an auntie and a friend, and the latest woman who's alleged
00:07 to have been subject to extreme violence by a man.
00:13 Shocking, and particularly being in my home town, it was even more, I've been feeling
00:20 it more.
00:22 Ms Bates died in the Victorian border town of Cobram, north of Shepparton on Tuesday.
00:27 She was found with head and upper body injuries at her home, where tributes continue to be
00:32 laid.
00:33 Today, 39-year-old John Torney, a man police say Ms Bates knew, fronted Shepparton Magistrates
00:39 Court on 13 charges relating to events leading up to her death.
00:44 Police prosecutors allege a serious assault and contravention of the Family Violence Act
00:50 occurred, but a post-mortem has yet to determine Ms Bates' cause of death.
00:55 The family says she lived with health conditions, including type 1 diabetes.
01:00 Torney was previously acquitted of the murder of a toddler in Mildura in 2015.
01:06 Torney wore a green sweatshirt and put up the middle finger as he entered the courtroom,
01:11 which heard he is withdrawing from a drug dependency.
01:14 He did not apply for bail and will remain in custody until his next court date in May.
01:20 A string of high-profile deaths has turned attention to gender-based violence and measures
01:25 like family violence intervention orders.
01:28 We certainly can work together in a systems response to look at measures that make it
01:33 more difficult for offenders who aren't following the conditions of their orders to operate
01:38 with such liberty.
01:40 Last year, Victoria Police laid more than 111,000 charges related to family violence.
01:46 Almost half were related to breaches of intervention orders.
01:50 Unfortunately the justice system isn't doing its job.
01:55 It's clear we need to do more.
01:57 It's clear we need to examine what else we can do and that does include what changes
02:02 we may need to make to our legal system.
02:05 While another regional town has been plunged into grief.
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