Cobram man faced court on assault charges following death of 49-year-old woman Emma Bates

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The latest women to allegedly die in a gender-based violence situation in Australia, was Emma Bates, a 49-year-old woman from the Victorian boarder town of Cobram. Today a man faced court, as tributes for Ms Bates continue to flow.

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00:00 Emma Bates, a daughter, a sister, an auntie and a friend, and the latest woman who's alleged

00:07 to have been subject to extreme violence by a man.

00:13 Shocking, and particularly being in my home town, it was even more, I've been feeling

00:20 it more.

00:22 Ms Bates died in the Victorian border town of Cobram, north of Shepparton on Tuesday.

00:27 She was found with head and upper body injuries at her home, where tributes continue to be

00:32 laid.

00:33 Today, 39-year-old John Torney, a man police say Ms Bates knew, fronted Shepparton Magistrates

00:39 Court on 13 charges relating to events leading up to her death.

00:44 Police prosecutors allege a serious assault and contravention of the Family Violence Act

00:50 occurred, but a post-mortem has yet to determine Ms Bates' cause of death.

00:55 The family says she lived with health conditions, including type 1 diabetes.

01:00 Torney was previously acquitted of the murder of a toddler in Mildura in 2015.

01:06 Torney wore a green sweatshirt and put up the middle finger as he entered the courtroom,

01:11 which heard he is withdrawing from a drug dependency.

01:14 He did not apply for bail and will remain in custody until his next court date in May.

01:20 A string of high-profile deaths has turned attention to gender-based violence and measures

01:25 like family violence intervention orders.

01:28 We certainly can work together in a systems response to look at measures that make it

01:33 more difficult for offenders who aren't following the conditions of their orders to operate

01:38 with such liberty.

01:40 Last year, Victoria Police laid more than 111,000 charges related to family violence.

01:46 Almost half were related to breaches of intervention orders.

01:50 Unfortunately the justice system isn't doing its job.

01:55 It's clear we need to do more.

01:57 It's clear we need to examine what else we can do and that does include what changes

02:02 we may need to make to our legal system.

02:05 While another regional town has been plunged into grief.

02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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