New Zealand Herald Article

After sending my original open letter to government officials, media, and organization's working in the family harm space, I was contacted by Melissa Nightingale of the New Zealand Herald. I agreed to go ahead with an article, under the same anonymity I hold here as Emma.

The link to that article is here. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington/corrections-apology-after-stalker-leaves-sinister-message-in-letterbox/PI5KXXFTBJBN7ALQFEPT3G733I/

I want to start by sincerely thanking Melissa for her thorough and thoughtful reporting. She researched, sought comment, and wrote with care — giving voice to experiences within a broken system that has, at times, failed the very people it exists to protect. That matters more than words can say.

I share part of my journey here — not to tear down any system, but because accountability is how systems improve. We are still on this road. There are still gaps. And while that is hard to sit with, it is also exactly why I keep speaking.

My hope is simple: that those who walk this unfathomable path after me might find fewer cracks to fall through. That the errors I have encountered become lessons that change outcomes for someone else.

You might wonder whether one person can really shift the systems that govern us. I believe they can. Change rarely arrives with a fanfare — it begins with someone refusing to stay silent.

"They say one person can't change a broken system. I say one ripple becomes a wave — so make the ripples, and imagine the shores of change they meet."

~ Emma Richardson ~ The Broken System Diaries