Woman's 'life sentence' as ex who bashed, raped her could walk free in 2020
By A Current Affair Staff
A woman bashed and raped by her ex-boyfriend says she has been handed a "life sentence" of severe anxiety and panic attacks – while her assailant could walk free from jail in just two years.
Perth woman Shannon Wall has spoken publicly about the brutal attack on A Current Affair.
She had a relationship with Mitchell Walsh for four years, and while she said he was never physically abusive in that time, he had been controlling.
Shannon Wall has spoken publicly about a brutal beating and sexual assault she endured at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. (A Current Affair)
"He would deadbolt the front door and carry the key around so I couldn't get out, and lock me in rooms and stuff like that," she told A Current Affair.
"He just isolated me from everybody. I didn't see my family, I was cut off from my friends."
She said Walsh ensured she had "no options".
But eventually the pressure of feeling captive became too much.
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"The night that I left for good, I had to message my mum quickly while he wasn't looking and ask her to call police, and the police came and removed me from the house," she said.
Mitchell Walsh was controlling during their four-year relationship, Shannon said. (A Current Affair)
"I just know that I couldn't go back there after that, I just knew that it wasn't right."
Shannon moved into a ninth-floor apartment with her new partner Adam.
One night, Walsh contacted her to pick up her belongings.
She said she met him at the McIver train station and they went back to her former residence.
"When we got there, we went inside and he went to the kitchen and started pulling down the blinds and I was just standing up next to the couch and he walked over to me and told me to sit down and I asked him, why?" she said.
Shannon said she had been handed a life sentence. (A Current Affair)
"And he just punched me in the head here, and I fell back on the couch and then he was on top of me with a knife in my face and saying, did you really think that I wouldn't hurt you?"
She said she asked him "please don't", but he hit her and chocked her with a bag strap before sexually assaulting her.
"And when that was over he pushed me away and said, put your clothes back on," she said.
"After I got dressed we went to the car and he wanted to go to the apartment I was living at with Adam."
Walsh, armed with a 30cm kitchen knife, drove them both to Shannon and Adam's apartment building.
Walsh will be eligible for parole in 2020. (A Current Affair)
"At the traffic lights I looked at him and he punched me in the mouth and my tooth chipped his hand, I just remember blood going everywhere," she said.
Walsh had her text Adam, and when they arrived at the apartment block, he had her buzz them in while he stayed out of site of the security camera.
"Once we got up to level nine, I had to stand on the door and he stood next to me and had the knife to my side and I heard Adam coming and I really can't describe the feeling, I couldn't warn him or anything, I thought he was going to get stabbed," she said.
"And so he opened the door and Mitch ran out from beside me with a knife up here and somehow Adam got him on the floor and they just started rolling around, wrestling over this knife."
Shannon said she ran out onto the street and flagged down a van, the occupants of which called the police.
After assaulting Shannon, Walsh drove them to the apartment she shared with her new partner. (A Current Affair)
However, by the time they arrived, Walsh had fled.
"Mitchell had gotten away, he took my phone, he took Adam's phone and a couple of other things and ran out the door and took our keys," she said.
"And when the police came they asked me what car he was driving and I told them the address, and they caught him in his house trying to hide things."
Walsh was convicted on charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, deprivation of liberty, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated burglary, stealing and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The WA Supreme Court sentenced Walsh to seven and a half years in jail, however, he only has to serve four and a half before becoming eligible for parole.
This means Walsh could be a free man in 2020.
"The last two years have been like torture for me, and I guarantee it's going to take more of my life than that," Shannon said.
Shannon said during the court proceedings, she sometimes felt like the one on trial.
Among other things, excerpts from her personal diary were read out in court.
Shannon's current partner Guy said Shannon still suffered from the attack. (A Current Affair)
Her new partner, Guy, said Shannon still suffered from the attack.
"We share the same bed and she wakes up screaming," he said.
"I might just be going to the shops to get some milk and she's in hysterics."
A Current Affair