Dianne Brimble
Finally, the NSW Coroner has published her report on the tragic death of young mother of three, Dianne Brimble – four and a half years after she began investigating the sordid events that lead to an innocent woman dying alone on the floor of a cruise ship while on a family holiday.
The report is heartbreaking in every respect (you can read more about it here) and highlights the callous way in which Ms Brimble was treated by a group of men, one of whom admitted having sex with her just before she died.
As Coroner Jacqueline Milledge said: “She was a person who lived a decent and innocent lifestyle. She had embarked on her holiday with her 12-year-old daughter and other family members, hardly indicative of a woman who intends to cruise, party and engage in a sexual free-for-all.”
Yesterday, journalist, blogger and herself a young mum, Mia Freedman Tweeted that she couldn’t stop thinking about Ms Brimble’s daughter who was about to start the holiday of a lifetime with her adored mother. Me too, and yet, at the end of the long inquiry I was uplifted to see something else though, to be honest, I wasn’t surprised.
The two men who have stood by Ms Brimble all the way through the recounting of the grotesquery that occurred on the ship were there again – her ex-husband Mark Brimble and her partner David Mitchell, both decent, honourable, kind, caring and just so very, very good.
Outside the court they were measured, solemn, dignified, as they always have been. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder, man-to-man, united in their grief and concern for Ms Brimble, the very models of how real men behave. “The way in which her life finished has finally been told,” Mr Brimble said of the findings.
Of the man convicted of supplying Ms Brimble with the illicit drug ‘fantasy’, Mr Brimble said; “He’s got to live with that for the rest of his life, no matter what he does or where he goes. I hope that he teaches and raises his children in a decent and respectful way.” (For more, go to this story from the ABC’s court reporter Janelle Wells).
Mr Brimble and Mr Mitchell are everyday Australian men, and they are beacons of decency. I prefer to focus on their goodness and what it says about the woman they loved, rather than dwell on the despicable behaviour of the men with whom the coroner has dealt.
