AN Albury father stabbed four times by the mother of his child will recall the drama in a domestic violence television documentary.
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Simon Lanham will appear in Dark Secrets, which is being hosted by Ray Martin on Prime7 on Sunday night.
The former Queenslander was living in a cabin with Sheree Maxfield and their children at a caravan park near Shepparton when he was knifed in 2012.
The 1am stabbing happened after the couple were awoken by their baby needing a nappy change.
“I remember suddenly being down on my knees and in agony, it was hard to breathe,” Mr Lanham told Martin of the attack.
“She was freaking.
“She turned the light on and I saw the blood, (I) still didn’t know I’d been stabbed.”
Mr Lanham suffered a collapsed lung and had his gall bladder and appendix removed after being wounded in the shoulder, chest and lower back.
Maxfield, who has an intellectual disability, was given a three-year community corrections order after a court found the original sentence of 12 months was inadequate.
Martin featured Mr Lanham in his show to reflect a male sufferer of domestic violence.
“When you look at his scars there’s no question he’s a victim, no matter what he had done beforehand,” Martin said.
“Across his stomach he’s got 20 stitches and it looks like a football that has been stitched up.”
Martin, as an 11-year-old, fled from his home in country NSW with his mother who was a victim of violence from his drunken father.
“It’s part of the motivation for the program but as a journalist I do it because it’s a great story and affects so many women and families,” Martin said.
“It’s been a soft crime for a hundred or a thousand years and it’s about time we stop thinking it’s a soft crime.”
Having reported on domestic violence over decades for Four Corners, 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, Martin is pleased at how it is now being taken far more seriously than it previously was by police and politicians.
“Politicians have said to me quietly over the years that there are no votes in blackfellas and there are no votes in domestic violence,” Martin said.
Dark Secrets, which also features Rosie Batty, will air at 8.30pm Sunday on Prime7.