Family of Waggrakine woman allegedly murdered by son says justice system repeatedly failed her

The family of a mother allegedly murdered by her son in Geraldton say she had repeatedly asked for help but was ultimately failed by the system.

WARNING: This story discusses incidents of self-harm and contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died.

Police were called to a house on Melbourne Street in Waggrakine last Friday night after neighbours reported hearing screaming and shouting.

Pauline Slater, 47, was found inside with serious injuries and was treated at the scene, but later died.

Her 21-year-old son, Adrian Terrence Ryan, faced Perth Magistrates Court on Sunday charged with one count of murder.

Ms Slater's family told media in Perth on Thursday the Geraldton mum had tried her "very hardest" to get help but was always let down.

"She wasn't just Pauline, she was a mother of eight children, a daughter, an auntie," her partner Ronnie Ryan said.

Mr Ryan said her death was preventable and a violence restraining order she had taken out against her son should have protected her.

He's called for tighter bail conditions, saying offenders are often "let out on the streets" with no support.

"The system has to change … to protect the innocent," he said.

"Would you rather the prisons full or the morgues full?"

Call for action

The family have also called on the state government and community organisations to "stand up and take some of the responsibility".

"This is happening on a daily basis in our community, black, white, whatever," Ms Slater's aunt Dalys Ring said.

"Our niece has lost her life trying to get support, asking in the courts, asking in our community organisations [and] each time they couldn't help.

"Enough is enough, the violence needs to stop.

Ms Ring said there was a lack of assistance and support in regional communities for people dealing with family and domestic violence, mental health and rehabilitation following incarceration.

She said any available services were significantly underfunded and under-resourced.

"We need a healing centre, our mob are going through so much trauma, the drugs and alcohol, the despair, the family violence," she said.

"If someone's reaching out and says, I want some help, there's not even a place for them to go and do that detox for seven days.

"Prisons now replace the old silence with people being incarcerated and spending lengthy periods of 23 hours per day in a locked cell, supposedly coming out rehabilitated with no access to any kind of treatment.

"People [are] coming out of prison so much worse than when they went in." 

Youth justice advocate Gerry Georgatos said regional communities were being left behind.

"The Geraldton Regional Aboriginal Medical Services, which is the peak body in Geraldton and for the whole Midwest, only has one psychologist," he said.

"That's disgraceful, that's diabolical, that's reprehensible."

Mr Georgatos said the government's investment in family and domestic violence was nowhere near enough and that it needed to be recognised as a humanitarian issue.

"The 16 days (in WA, domestic violence campaign) needs to become 365 days," he said.

"We're a rich state, we're one of the richest jurisdictions in the world, we have the capacity for multi billion dollars each year for the next 10 years to make the tangible difference that we need to make."

'No shortage of resources', says premier

Premier Cook insisted there was no shortage of resources in family and domestic violence services.

"Family and domestic violence is an insidious disease in our community," he said.

"We must all play our part to continue to put downward pressure on it, and our police have extra resources today, they have extra laws in place at their disposal to continue to keep victims of domestic violence safe.

"Since 2017 we've increased the investment in family and domestic violence services by over half a billion dollars.

"We are continuing to make the investments we need backing not only our cops, our judicial system but also those community organisations that do such a good job on our behalf."