Eggshell Skull - BookWyrm

paperback

Published by Allen And Unwin.

ISBN:: 9781760295776

(1 review)

EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.

But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.

This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice …

EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.

But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?

Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.

This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice can look very different, especially for women. The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she'd vowed never to tell. And this is how, after years of struggle, she found herself on the other side of the courtroom, telling her story.

Bri Lee has written a fierce and eloquent memoir that addresses both her own reckoning with the past as well as with the stories around her, to speak the truth with wit, empathy and unflinching courage. Eggshell Skull is a haunting appraisal of modern Australia from a new and essential voice.

1 edition

aurrai reviewed Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

None

5 stars

A sample of the text:

The woman was screaming at something further ahead. I followed her terrified gaze and saw a huge pit bull charging toward her from the other side of the road. The woman had two dogs of her own, small white poodles, and they were yelping and tangling their leashes around her ankles. She fumbled, trying to pick them up and move, but they were pulling against their collars, choking themselves with their necks at sharp angles, trying to escape. She was only metres from me, just on the footpath, but as the pit bull grew larger and closer to their tangled panic, I froze.

The pit bull darted across the road in front of me and I saw its huge jaw open, heard a loud bark emerge through its giant teeth, and I thought I should hit it with my car. Put your foot down! …

A sample of the text:

The woman was screaming at something further ahead. I followed her terrified gaze and saw a huge pit bull charging toward her from the other side of the road. The woman had two dogs of her own, small white poodles, and they were yelping and tangling their leashes around her ankles. She fumbled, trying to pick them up and move, but they were pulling against their collars, choking themselves with their necks at sharp angles, trying to escape. She was only metres from me, just on the footpath, but as the pit bull grew larger and closer to their tangled panic, I froze.

The pit bull darted across the road in front of me and I saw its huge jaw open, heard a loud bark emerge through its giant teeth, and I thought I should hit it with my car. Put your foot down! I screamed at myself, but I was frozen.

The pit bull passed in front of my car, leaping powerfully up onto the footpath. As it closed in on the fluffy poodles and their choking diamante collars, the pit bull screeched to a halt and bowed its head, and its stubby tail began wagging furiously. The woman was reeling, yanking the leashes away from this huge thing that was now nuzzling her pristine poodles. The pit bull was so excited it let out another bark and rolled onto its back and wiggled toward the poodles again.

Another woman rushed onto the scene, apologising profusely, and in one motion she leaned down and swept the pit bull into her arms, cradling it like a baby with its belly up, and as its tail kept wagging it licked her face. ‘Sorry! He’s still—’ the pit bull’s owner was interrupted by a huge lick to her face ‘—a puppy!’

I drove on for a few minutes before the adrenalin subsided, then I pulled over and started crying. My face burned with the shame. After all those years I had just frozen, again. And I cried out again, thinking that if I hadn’t frozen I would have hit and killed that puppy because of its breed. Because someone else was afraid of it and because I had heard stories about ‘those kinds of dogs’.