Nearly three years ago Sharon Bell answered a knock on the door to be told her daughter, Paula Conlon, had been murdered.
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In the time since she has visited her daughter's body in a morgue, explained to her three granddaughters why they would never see their mother again and sat through a 10 week trial before a jury found Aleksander Vojneski guilty of killing Ms Conlon.
And it was all due to domestic violence; a tragic chain of events set off by a confrontation inside Ms Conlon's Macgregor home that ended with Vojneski inflicting 11 stab wounds on his partner one night in March 2012.
It's a scenario Mrs Bell hopes no family, and no woman, ever has to face again.
She has urged women experiencing domestic violence to learn from her daughter's death ahead of White Ribbon Day on Tuesday, November 25.
Mrs Bell recorded a heartfelt video message to the Canberra community that ACT police will share online from today.
"At her lowest time and in desperate need of having someone to love, and desperately wanting to be loved, Paula met somebody she thought would make her happy and would look after her," Mrs Bell says.
"This person turned out to have a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and of violence to others over many years."
Mrs Bell said on average, one woman was killed every week by a current or former partner in Australia, and one in four young Australians was exposed to domestic violence.
"We all like to think that our family, friends, neighbours and ourselves are safe at home.
"Most of us would believe this to be a basic human right.
"But sadly, for many people, and in our personal case our daughter Paula, this is not always the case."
Mrs Bell urged anyone who knew of a family member, friend, colleague or acquaintance who was a victim of domestic violence to phone police or the ACT's domestic violence crisis line.
Vojneski was sentenced to life in jail for killing Ms Conlon, 30, earlier this month.
Mrs Bell and her husband Ian travelled from their home in Britain to Canberra for 10 weeks to sit through the ACT Supreme Court trial.
The pair met at Calvary Hospital's psychiatric unit in 2011 and the Crown argued their six-month relationship had been volatile and marked by domestic violence.
Ms Conlon tried to wean Vojneski off ice because she thought she was pregnant.
The court was told he killed Ms Conlon after he became frustrated as he couldn't get drugs and because she spent the last of her money on clothes.
Ms Conlon's supporters wore white ribbons, the symbol for domestic violence awareness, throughout the trial.
Speaking outside court after Vojneski was found guilty, Mrs Bell said news her daughter had died was what every parent dreaded.
To find out she was murdered "was just shock on another level".
She said her daughter's strong desire to care for others had ultimately cost her her life.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Mrs Bell said going to see her daughter in the morgue the day before her funeral was the hardest thing she ever had to do.
"We wanted her to look at peace ... she didn't look at peace, she looked in pain, and that broke our hearts," she wrote.
Mrs Bell said Ms Conlon's children were deprived of a mother through her killer's actions.
"We will never forget Paula and hope that she can now rest in peace knowing that justice has been served."
Vojneski launched an appeal against his life sentence the day after it was handed down.
If you are a victim of domestic violence or know someone who is, phone police, 131 444 or the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT, 6280 0900.
