By Casey Neill
Tough love steered addict away from drugs and back to her family…
“If it wasn’t for you I’d probably be dead.”
Dandenong Acting Sergeant Russell Bratton said hearing these words was one of the highlights of his career.
He met Mary, not her real name, when responding to reports of a suspicious vehicle in Springvale.
There was a warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court and comply with a corrections order.
“She’s living out of her car, struggling with heroin addiction, but she declined any police help at the time for referrals,” Act Sgt Bratton said.
She turned up at another suspicious vehicle check, in Keysborough.
“I open up the door and find the same girl, curled up in the back seat with her little dog on her lap looking frightened, dirty,” he said.
“She’d still been living out of her car, she’d failed to go to court again so there was another warrant out for her.
“I remember looking at her licence photo and seeing this fresh young girl.
“Six years later she was a mess.
“She looked like a scared young kid.”
Acting Sergeant Bratton took Mary, aged in her thirties, back to the police station.
“We made a decision that we had to apply to have her remanded,” he said.
“She didn’t tick a lot of the boxes. She wasn’t a danger to the public, her offending wasn’t serious enough, it was only to ensure she got to court.
“Sometimes we don’t get remand on that basis.
“She needed to go to start the welfare process because she wasn’t going to help herself.”
The bail justice questioned the bail application but approved it.
“She went to prison for a short time,” Act Sgt Bratton said.
A year later, he bumped into her in Dandenong.
“She said ‘if it wasn’t for you I’d probably be dead’,” he said.
“It’s probably one of the highlights of my career so far.
“Prison is rock bottom. The only place to go is up.”
Act Sgt Bratton, who grew up in Dandenong, said support from Mary’s parents was a big factor in her continued recovery.
Keith and Anne, who didn’t want their surname printed, said Mary completed community service and a methadone program once released.
“That week that she was locked up gave her that little bit of advantage of being away from the drugs,” Anne said.
She said the warrants stemmed from “when she stole my credit cards, that was back in 2014”.
“That was the first time we actually charged her,” she said.
“Police tried to tell us ‘you really don’t want to charge her’ and I said ‘yes we really do, that’s the only way we’re going to stop her’.”
She’s now been living with them for the past 18 months.
“It hasn’t been an easy time for her. These horrible drugs, they get such a hold on people,” Keith said.
Anne said: “It’s one thing I wouldn’t wish on anybody.”
