> But within 24 hours of the men going to prison, a seismic event takes place that will throw the verdict on its head.
>Lisa Hutchins, the bush nurse and “second mum” who picked Elise up from the party, comes forward with a new statement.
>In it, she writes that Elise seemed like she “was seeking to present information to save face and take control of an embarrassing situation”.
So Lisa Hutchins, Australian nurse who has a duty to protect, changes her statement only after the two guys are convicted? That looks exactly like a calculated lie to help the two rapists. So Lisa Hutchins, a nurse, protects rapists over victims. Gross.
ETA: apparently the terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
It drives me nuts when people say ‘Oh I have known this person my whole life, they’d never do something like this.’ Like hello, news flash, even people you know for years and seem like nice people can commit crimes. And just because they’re nice to you doesn’t mean they don’t commit atrocities towards other people. God, what a fucked up story.
it always makes my eyes roll bc that's how most abusers work??? unless they go batshit crazy, they understand that you need to be someone's outgoing coworker, loved friend, helpful neighbour or an appreciated member of any community so your victim would be isolated
this and the fact that a lot of abusers do a 180 after they have their victim trapped is one of the first things i was taught when volunteering in dv shelters
So many people who have never experienced abuse comfort themselves by believing they would be smarter, better, not get trapped. You see this a lot in chuddy memes that are like "when he's physically abusive but 6 foot. Smh women" it's a comforting thought to people without empathy, that they couldn't possibly wind up trapped with someone they thought was a kind person.
or yeah, i stopped mentioning i worked with dv victims because of how many people felt comfortable announcing to me that it could never ever happened to them often adding the reasons like their no bs personality and that they have careers or friends 💀 like a) very disrespectful to victims of domestic abuse in general b) the ignorance and the perception of victims make it very difficult for this type of people to leave if it actual happens to them... one of the worst cases i saw was a woman in her late 40s who thought that her having a law firm and some experience meant she wasn't that abused and she kept leaving and returning to her abusive partner
and don't get me even start on the memes!! i'm not denying that there are people who ignore certain personality traits and end up in a cycle of abusive relationships, but a lot of people really do think that abusers break your legs and nose on your first date 😭 even the first slap takes usually quite some time
Yeah it requires such a low level of awareness and EQ to seriously say something like that and yet there's always some idiot saying that in true crime docs / articles as if it actually carries water.
I'm have mixed opinions on Malcolm Gladwell's work, but "Talking to Strangers" is a fantastic book on this topic- how we routinely overestimate our ability to judge someone's character / intentions both with first impressions and people we've known intimately for years. We think we can read people, we can't.
it's not like there can be no meaningful ability to read people. but it's contextual and never totally reliable, and gosh that sure is a tough pill for most people to swallow.
It's all based on your experience and what you have seen. You'll be able to spot shitty people like ones you've dealt with before, you will not be able to spot someone hiding in a way you aren't aware of.
It's a fine line a lot of victims walk, between paranoia and knowing their experiences.
Especially someone their parents age, they see them as sweet little children and then teens and young adults on their best behaviour. If the perpetrators have been friends with their own children, they see them through the same lens and to believe they could do something like this might reflect on how they see their own children.
Also, she'd known the victim her whole life, too! So she knew the boys well enough to know they wouldn't rape, but didn't know the girl well enough to know she wouldn't lie about it?
After living in Australia myself around the same time & seeing first hand how communities treated women who spoke up about assault & rape, I can confidently say that the Australian town of Balmoral in Western Victoria is not the only community who has aggressively supported rapists like Luke Merryful & Shaun Bloomfield. It's disgraceful that these two didn't serve additional time in custody after the second conviction.
Also, that quote from Rosie Hutchins:
>She said what happened between Elise and Luke had “nothing to do with” her and that she had “done nothing wrong” by socialising with Luke.
>“Balmoral is a small community with limited opportunity to socialise,” she wrote.
>“There should not have been an expectation for me to stay home and avoid contact with everyone for the YEARS it took to finalise this case.
>“Mr Merryfull has always been and will always be a close friend of mine regardless of what he has or has not done.
>“That’s what friends do, they support each other during difficult times.”
Probably given proudly, completely ignoring that she fundamentally did not support her friend who was raped that night. I couldn't imagine being the type of person who confidently says they would continue to be close friends with someone even if they are a rapist. I hope this haunts her for the rest of her life too.
And her mother, the nurse Lisa Hutchins should absolutely lose her professional registration. She's a potential danger to future victims of rape who have to interact with her in a clinical setting. Apparently her daughter Rosie Hutchins is also nurse & works in funeral services 🚩🚩🚩
My thoughts are with the victim & their family. I hope they are in a safer & much more supportive environment now.
The terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
Wow. Retired for "medical reasons", not for being a potential danger to future victims of rape or because she lost her professional registration.
Her repeated involvement in the rape trial should have been referred to in that article, provides context in terms of her judgement & ability to tell the truth previously having been found unreliable in a court of law.
This is so fucking dark. Thank you for sharing so the whole world knows that Luke Merryful and Shaun Bloomfield are rapists and their whole town openly supported them.
The post is titled "The town that turned its back on a rape victim" & an article with significant detail is provided for you. And your response is essentially 'laugh out loud, I don't want to read the article shared specifically on the longreads sub' ??
This was such a frustrating read because she did everything you're "supposed" to do. She immediately called people and told them what happened, called the police, and preserved the scene and evidence, and it STILL didn't matter to these people.
It doesn't sound like the people supporting the rapists don't believe her. It is that they don't care.
Just look at the part where the rapist's dad backs her teenage brother against a wall with a crowd and forces him to shake hands and essentially publically absolve him. He would not have done this "oh heck let's all just bury the hatchet" if he thought that his son was innocent and had been falsely convicted based on a lie.
Even the people who defend them do it in a way of "well what do you expect when you get drunk and then go lay down in an area where men are?" They aren't denying her story, they are saying Boys will be Boys.
It is all very very reminiscent of the Steubenville, Oh rape case. Very similar crime by popular athletes, identical reaction from the community.
The unfortunate reality is that many people only see rape as a big deal if it’s done at gunpoint/knife point by a stranger (especially if that stranger is part of an ethnic minority group). Many people’s only concern with rape is about who gets to do it, and as long as rape is occurring in a way that reinforces social hierarchy, people won’t get too upset about it.
Man drugs and rapes woman he’s on a date with?
“He’s just a boy having some harmless fun and it’s her fault for leading him on.”
Uncle molests his niece?
“He’s just a troubled man who needs to find god, and his nieces will be told they can’t wear skirts around him anymore so they don’t appear too tempting.”
Man forces himself on his wife?
“Well that’s his right as a husband, why wasn’t she agreeing to have sex with him more often?”
Female teacher sleeps with a 15 year old student?
“She’s young and hot and all boys want to sleep with hot women, plus the student was tall for his age so he probably made the first move.“
Wealthy man sexually coerces young employee?
“Any woman would want to have sex with a rich and powerful man, it’s wrong that he had an affair but she should’ve just quit her job and given up her housing if she didn’t want to have sex with him.”
Cop arrests sex work and rapes her?
“She’s a sex worker, so her body is public property anyways, she’s just upset that he didn’t give her special treatment afterwards.”
Immigrant man rapes a white woman?
“THIS IS AN UNPRECEDENTED VIOLATION OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT THAT MUST BE ERADICATED WITH ZERO MERCY! HOW COULD WE EVER TOLERATE RAPE IN OUR SOCIETY!?”
The terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
I think the thing that really upsets me about this is that this is some backwater hick-town football club… and the same kind of corruption and victim-blaming and perpetrator-shielding that exists for stuff as big as the Epstein files exists here. Which suggests that it’s just inherent human nature to be awful.
You underestimate how highly these types think of their backwater hick sports clubs.
This case is almost identical to the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. The rapists were two top football players from their podunk town team that was like the regional champs or whatever. And when that case made international news and was condemned around the globe, the overwhelming response from the towns people was that we were all just jealous of how good their High School football team was. Multiple public officials from the city and school made public statements to that effect. It was absolutely demented.
I would not be surprised if the talk at the Balmoral pub today is all about how their footy club is so amazing that people from Brisbane to New York city were just looking for any flimsy excuse to take them down.
It's misogyny. It's not "human nature", there are plenty of people who don't do that, and it's kind of giving up to say that it is.
Epstein is unique because they are so rich and powerful, they can do things on a grand scale and avoid consequences. But as I heard someone say, a middle-class person's Epstein Island is sex tourism in the third world, and a lower class person's Epstein Island is the foster care system. Children are abused on all levels of society and scapegoating Epstein is not going to solve the problems on a societal level.
Look at the Gisele Pelicot case in France - all of her rapists were normal men.
If people don't respect women, don't respect children, then they will contribute to rape culture
This is such a horrifying example of how incarceration doesn’t really deliver justice for the victims of so many crimes. I wish there were more flexibility for judges to sentence people to things like banishment from their shitty small towns. Luke Merryful and Shaun Bloomfield should be removed from their social support systems and forced to live alone hundreds of miles away from their previous football team. They should be banned from ever playing football again. They should have some clerk who follows them to their new lives and tells everyone they meet: this dude’s a rapist and that’s why he can’t ever go home again.
Follow up reporting from the ABC today. It's heartbreaking and infuriating. A lot of Australia refuses to acknowledge it has a terrible problem with misogyny, domestic violence and rape culture. Even those that acknowledge it still downplay the true impact.
as someone who has lived in australia, it's really not surprising at all. they have a masculinist culture. very sexist, lots of alcohol abuse too. very high DV rates. I don't know much about NZ but they have high DV rates also, similar cultures. if you aren't connecting these things to misogyny and the way boys are taught (yes, TAUGHT) to treat women then you are part of the problem.
i know plenty of people there that were sexually abused as children. boys by other boys too. i really think there is more than people openly acknowledge, because it doesn't get reported in most cases.
an old friend of mine was raped around the same age as the woman in the article, and she came forward when it happened to someone else. the rapist, who was our schoolmate, went to jail for it.
AssociateAdditional4 | 9 hours ago
The nurse should have her license revoked for lying under oath
ErsatzHaderach | 7 hours ago
that nurse is an absolute piece of work. how fucking dare you sit there and give comfort to a rape victim then betray her like that.
FlyAwayJai | 5 hours ago
> But within 24 hours of the men going to prison, a seismic event takes place that will throw the verdict on its head.
>Lisa Hutchins, the bush nurse and “second mum” who picked Elise up from the party, comes forward with a new statement.
>In it, she writes that Elise seemed like she “was seeking to present information to save face and take control of an embarrassing situation”.
So Lisa Hutchins, Australian nurse who has a duty to protect, changes her statement only after the two guys are convicted? That looks exactly like a calculated lie to help the two rapists. So Lisa Hutchins, a nurse, protects rapists over victims. Gross.
ETA: apparently the terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
OrneryYesterday7 | 47 minutes ago
Her daughter, Rosie Hutchins, may also be a nurse now. Her Facebook profile suggests as much, anyway.
primepistachio | 8 hours ago
It drives me nuts when people say ‘Oh I have known this person my whole life, they’d never do something like this.’ Like hello, news flash, even people you know for years and seem like nice people can commit crimes. And just because they’re nice to you doesn’t mean they don’t commit atrocities towards other people. God, what a fucked up story.
rask0ln | 6 hours ago
it always makes my eyes roll bc that's how most abusers work??? unless they go batshit crazy, they understand that you need to be someone's outgoing coworker, loved friend, helpful neighbour or an appreciated member of any community so your victim would be isolated
this and the fact that a lot of abusers do a 180 after they have their victim trapped is one of the first things i was taught when volunteering in dv shelters
SquidTheRidiculous | 4 hours ago
So many people who have never experienced abuse comfort themselves by believing they would be smarter, better, not get trapped. You see this a lot in chuddy memes that are like "when he's physically abusive but 6 foot. Smh women" it's a comforting thought to people without empathy, that they couldn't possibly wind up trapped with someone they thought was a kind person.
rask0ln | 4 hours ago
or yeah, i stopped mentioning i worked with dv victims because of how many people felt comfortable announcing to me that it could never ever happened to them often adding the reasons like their no bs personality and that they have careers or friends 💀 like a) very disrespectful to victims of domestic abuse in general b) the ignorance and the perception of victims make it very difficult for this type of people to leave if it actual happens to them... one of the worst cases i saw was a woman in her late 40s who thought that her having a law firm and some experience meant she wasn't that abused and she kept leaving and returning to her abusive partner
and don't get me even start on the memes!! i'm not denying that there are people who ignore certain personality traits and end up in a cycle of abusive relationships, but a lot of people really do think that abusers break your legs and nose on your first date 😭 even the first slap takes usually quite some time
ChargingWarthog | 6 hours ago
Yeah it requires such a low level of awareness and EQ to seriously say something like that and yet there's always some idiot saying that in true crime docs / articles as if it actually carries water.
I'm have mixed opinions on Malcolm Gladwell's work, but "Talking to Strangers" is a fantastic book on this topic- how we routinely overestimate our ability to judge someone's character / intentions both with first impressions and people we've known intimately for years. We think we can read people, we can't.
ErsatzHaderach | 5 hours ago
it's not like there can be no meaningful ability to read people. but it's contextual and never totally reliable, and gosh that sure is a tough pill for most people to swallow.
ChargingWarthog | 4 hours ago
Correct- I agree. We just vastly overestimate our ability to do so.
SquidTheRidiculous | 4 hours ago
It's all based on your experience and what you have seen. You'll be able to spot shitty people like ones you've dealt with before, you will not be able to spot someone hiding in a way you aren't aware of.
It's a fine line a lot of victims walk, between paranoia and knowing their experiences.
Illustrious-Site1101 | 6 hours ago
Especially someone their parents age, they see them as sweet little children and then teens and young adults on their best behaviour. If the perpetrators have been friends with their own children, they see them through the same lens and to believe they could do something like this might reflect on how they see their own children.
raphaellaskies | 3 hours ago
Also, she'd known the victim her whole life, too! So she knew the boys well enough to know they wouldn't rape, but didn't know the girl well enough to know she wouldn't lie about it?
BeanEireannach | 8 hours ago
After living in Australia myself around the same time & seeing first hand how communities treated women who spoke up about assault & rape, I can confidently say that the Australian town of Balmoral in Western Victoria is not the only community who has aggressively supported rapists like Luke Merryful & Shaun Bloomfield. It's disgraceful that these two didn't serve additional time in custody after the second conviction.
Also, that quote from Rosie Hutchins:
>She said what happened between Elise and Luke had “nothing to do with” her and that she had “done nothing wrong” by socialising with Luke.
>“Balmoral is a small community with limited opportunity to socialise,” she wrote.
>“There should not have been an expectation for me to stay home and avoid contact with everyone for the YEARS it took to finalise this case.
>“Mr Merryfull has always been and will always be a close friend of mine regardless of what he has or has not done.
>“That’s what friends do, they support each other during difficult times.”
Probably given proudly, completely ignoring that she fundamentally did not support her friend who was raped that night. I couldn't imagine being the type of person who confidently says they would continue to be close friends with someone even if they are a rapist. I hope this haunts her for the rest of her life too.
And her mother, the nurse Lisa Hutchins should absolutely lose her professional registration. She's a potential danger to future victims of rape who have to interact with her in a clinical setting. Apparently her daughter Rosie Hutchins is also nurse & works in funeral services 🚩🚩🚩
My thoughts are with the victim & their family. I hope they are in a safer & much more supportive environment now.
FlyAwayJai | 5 hours ago
The terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
BeanEireannach | 5 hours ago
Wow. Retired for "medical reasons", not for being a potential danger to future victims of rape or because she lost her professional registration.
Her repeated involvement in the rape trial should have been referred to in that article, provides context in terms of her judgement & ability to tell the truth previously having been found unreliable in a court of law.
TheDaveStrider | 3 hours ago
as someone who has also lived in australia, yes. the country has a rape culture
ranger398 | 10 hours ago
This is so fucking dark. Thank you for sharing so the whole world knows that Luke Merryful and Shaun Bloomfield are rapists and their whole town openly supported them.
No_Touch_8217 | 7 hours ago
not sure what’s happening here but i’m intrigued lol someone explain this to me
BeanEireannach | 7 hours ago
>lol someone explain this to me
The post is titled "The town that turned its back on a rape victim" & an article with significant detail is provided for you. And your response is essentially 'laugh out loud, I don't want to read the article shared specifically on the longreads sub' ??
casapantalones | 6 hours ago
Read the article maybe?
FunStorm6487 | 4 hours ago
Does your mommy still spoon feed you?
pan_alice | 9 hours ago
My heart goes out to Elise and her family. What a vile community to stand by two men convicted of rape twice. It's absolutely shameful.
themehboat | 7 hours ago
This was such a frustrating read because she did everything you're "supposed" to do. She immediately called people and told them what happened, called the police, and preserved the scene and evidence, and it STILL didn't matter to these people.
BostonBlackCat | 5 hours ago
It doesn't sound like the people supporting the rapists don't believe her. It is that they don't care.
Just look at the part where the rapist's dad backs her teenage brother against a wall with a crowd and forces him to shake hands and essentially publically absolve him. He would not have done this "oh heck let's all just bury the hatchet" if he thought that his son was innocent and had been falsely convicted based on a lie.
Even the people who defend them do it in a way of "well what do you expect when you get drunk and then go lay down in an area where men are?" They aren't denying her story, they are saying Boys will be Boys.
It is all very very reminiscent of the Steubenville, Oh rape case. Very similar crime by popular athletes, identical reaction from the community.
sivez97 | an hour ago
The unfortunate reality is that many people only see rape as a big deal if it’s done at gunpoint/knife point by a stranger (especially if that stranger is part of an ethnic minority group). Many people’s only concern with rape is about who gets to do it, and as long as rape is occurring in a way that reinforces social hierarchy, people won’t get too upset about it.
Man drugs and rapes woman he’s on a date with? “He’s just a boy having some harmless fun and it’s her fault for leading him on.”
Uncle molests his niece? “He’s just a troubled man who needs to find god, and his nieces will be told they can’t wear skirts around him anymore so they don’t appear too tempting.”
Man forces himself on his wife? “Well that’s his right as a husband, why wasn’t she agreeing to have sex with him more often?”
Female teacher sleeps with a 15 year old student? “She’s young and hot and all boys want to sleep with hot women, plus the student was tall for his age so he probably made the first move.“
Wealthy man sexually coerces young employee? “Any woman would want to have sex with a rich and powerful man, it’s wrong that he had an affair but she should’ve just quit her job and given up her housing if she didn’t want to have sex with him.”
Cop arrests sex work and rapes her? “She’s a sex worker, so her body is public property anyways, she’s just upset that he didn’t give her special treatment afterwards.”
Immigrant man rapes a white woman? “THIS IS AN UNPRECEDENTED VIOLATION OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT THAT MUST BE ERADICATED WITH ZERO MERCY! HOW COULD WE EVER TOLERATE RAPE IN OUR SOCIETY!?”
Commercial-Spinach93 | 8 hours ago
That's what we talk when we talk about rape culture and how complicit society is.
sharipep | 8 hours ago
Fuck that nurse specifically. What a horrible despicable human being
AdministrativeMinion | 7 hours ago
That nurse should be struck off
FlyAwayJai | 5 hours ago
The terrible nurse and rapist protector Lisa Hutchins retired in 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/bush-nursing-centres-call-for-funding-victorian-government/104159470
terriblestrawberries | 6 hours ago
Everything I want to say about these people is probably against Reddit ToS. Wishing everyone but the victim the absolute worst.
BeanEireannach | 5 hours ago
May it follow them for the rest of their lives.
TikvahT | 5 hours ago
Least surprising headline of all time. Signed, a victim of “date” rape.
Master_McKnowledge | 7 hours ago
I think the thing that really upsets me about this is that this is some backwater hick-town football club… and the same kind of corruption and victim-blaming and perpetrator-shielding that exists for stuff as big as the Epstein files exists here. Which suggests that it’s just inherent human nature to be awful.
BostonBlackCat | 5 hours ago
You underestimate how highly these types think of their backwater hick sports clubs.
This case is almost identical to the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. The rapists were two top football players from their podunk town team that was like the regional champs or whatever. And when that case made international news and was condemned around the globe, the overwhelming response from the towns people was that we were all just jealous of how good their High School football team was. Multiple public officials from the city and school made public statements to that effect. It was absolutely demented.
I would not be surprised if the talk at the Balmoral pub today is all about how their footy club is so amazing that people from Brisbane to New York city were just looking for any flimsy excuse to take them down.
Master_McKnowledge | 5 hours ago
I know I’m being cynical in saying this, but technically those hick-town sports guys did put their backwater town on the global map.
theshadowofself | 5 hours ago
Interesting observation. This is a microcosm of a much larger issue of protecting people of influence who do bad things
TheDaveStrider | 3 hours ago
It's misogyny. It's not "human nature", there are plenty of people who don't do that, and it's kind of giving up to say that it is.
Epstein is unique because they are so rich and powerful, they can do things on a grand scale and avoid consequences. But as I heard someone say, a middle-class person's Epstein Island is sex tourism in the third world, and a lower class person's Epstein Island is the foster care system. Children are abused on all levels of society and scapegoating Epstein is not going to solve the problems on a societal level.
Look at the Gisele Pelicot case in France - all of her rapists were normal men.
If people don't respect women, don't respect children, then they will contribute to rape culture
Corvid-Shade | 4 hours ago
This is such a horrifying example of how incarceration doesn’t really deliver justice for the victims of so many crimes. I wish there were more flexibility for judges to sentence people to things like banishment from their shitty small towns. Luke Merryful and Shaun Bloomfield should be removed from their social support systems and forced to live alone hundreds of miles away from their previous football team. They should be banned from ever playing football again. They should have some clerk who follows them to their new lives and tells everyone they meet: this dude’s a rapist and that’s why he can’t ever go home again.
miette27 | 2 hours ago
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-22/hometown-boys-culture-of-football-misogyny-called-out-balmoral/106358784
Follow up reporting from the ABC today. It's heartbreaking and infuriating. A lot of Australia refuses to acknowledge it has a terrible problem with misogyny, domestic violence and rape culture. Even those that acknowledge it still downplay the true impact.
TheDaveStrider | 3 hours ago
as someone who has lived in australia, it's really not surprising at all. they have a masculinist culture. very sexist, lots of alcohol abuse too. very high DV rates. I don't know much about NZ but they have high DV rates also, similar cultures. if you aren't connecting these things to misogyny and the way boys are taught (yes, TAUGHT) to treat women then you are part of the problem.
i know plenty of people there that were sexually abused as children. boys by other boys too. i really think there is more than people openly acknowledge, because it doesn't get reported in most cases.
an old friend of mine was raped around the same age as the woman in the article, and she came forward when it happened to someone else. the rapist, who was our schoolmate, went to jail for it.