'Her death was not in vain': DV royal commission about to be handed down

Victoria Stewart was one of four women killed in a single week in 2023.

“I just needed a hug from her. I needed one of her hugs,” daughter Tara Songer, who now wears a necklace etched with her mother’s fingerprint, said.

“I know she fought to the very end. Because when we got her phone back it was completely smashed. She tried to fight. She tried.”

Clifford Neumann is currently serving more than two decades for the frenzied, planned murder of Stewart in Morphett Vale. 

“He’s an absolute monster,” Songer said.

“He’s taken away one of my main reasons to keep going. And for a while there I was worried that life wasn’t worth living because she was gone.” 

Stewart’s death was one of many that sparked loud calls for change. 

Now, the findings from the landmark Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence are about to be handed down. 

“There’s been some shocking stories. I mean, this Royal Commission was born out of unimaginable tragedy,” Commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja said.

“The lack of, the dearth of… support services for children and young people has been staggering,” she added. 

“So that has shocked me. But I have to admit, a lot of things have been disarming and haunting.”

The report is scheduled to be presented to the Governor on Thursday, with the State Government expected to release the recommendations to the public early next week.

“If anything good comes out of Vick’s death… then I’m hopeful this is the start of it,” Stewart’s brother, Douglas Jones, said.

“I want her to know we are doing something about it,” Songer said. 

“That her death was not in vain.”