By Victoria Stone-Meadows
A POLICE officer from Narre Warren has been awarded a divisional commendation for her exceptional work on a family violence case.
On 13 June Senior Constable Jacinta (Jay) Allen, 31, attended an address in Narre Warren for a routine welfare check on a young woman and her infant child.
Upon knocking on the door and receiving no response, Sen Const Allen checked the number plates of the car in the driveway and discovered it belonged to the women’s ex-partner, who had a history of abusive behaviour.
“The car belonged to her ex-partner who she had a standing intervention order against,” Sen Const Allen said.
“We did some searching, rang family members, but no one had seen her for a few days and that started to ring alarm bells.”
When her and another officer were on their way back to the station to report the young woman as a missing person, they received a call from their sergeant.
The young woman’s mother had called the police station and said her daughter was at the house the two officers had just checked.
“The ex-boyfriend had been there with her when we knocked on the door but had not allowed her to answer,” Ms Allen said.
“We got a few more members to go back to the house and we were going to force our way in because she may have been in serious danger.”
This time the young woman did answer the door to the police but refused to co-operate and give a statement
It was then that Sen Const Allen showed an amazing amount of compassion for the young woman and sat with her for many hours to reassure her the police were trying to help but couldn’t without her assistance.
“She had a young baby and I had to make her see it was bigger than just her,” Sen Const Allen said.
“She eventually agreed to make a statement.”
Sen Const Allen ended up with a statement from the young woman that was 13 pages long and detailed two years of violent history.
“There was stuff she hadn’t told police before and some of it was pretty nasty,” she said.
After giving her statement, the young woman was at Narre Warren Police Station when she started receiving text messages from her ex-partner.
It was then that Sen Const Allen arranged with the sergeant for two officers to go and arrest him.
The man was charged with more than 50 offences relating to the years of abuse he inflicted on his former partner and on 6 September was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Sen Cont Allen was on duty with this case from 3pm on Monday 13 June until 7am on Tuesday 14 June.
“It was a really good outcome and I hope it’s enough time for the young girl to rebuild with her baby and not have to be controlled by someone else,” she said.
Since then, Sen Const Allen has caught up with the young woman and her mother to make sure she’s alright.
“I have met with her and met the baby and mum. They are such a lovely family.”
Though all of the incident and on receiving the award, Jay Allen has maintained her sense of humility and adherence to duty.
“I get paid to do it, I don’t think it was a big deal,” she said
“I just did my job, other people look at it differently like I went above and beyond but that’s what I’m there for, to help people when they can’t help themselves.”
