WARNING: The content of this article may not be appropriate for all readers.
A Nanaimo woman's story about death threats from her ex-husband has been featured in a short documentary about a charity created to help victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
The 10-minute documentary Behind Closed Doors was directed by Robert Gow and co-produced by Robyn Abbott. It was released May 18 on CBC, focusing on the tragedy which rocked Sarah Sherman's life.
On Nov. 8, 2004, Sherman was attacked by her ex-husband William Bethell, against whom she had a restraining order, a coroner's inquest heard. He physically and sexually assaulted her in her home, then tied her up and informed her he planned to pick their daughter up from school and kill them together and then himself.
She managed to escape and call the police, but her ex-husband had by then already picked up their daughter. When he saw a police vehicle behind him, he drove into another vehicle, resulting in a three-car collision that killed him, though their child survived. Another child, however, was killed in the crash and one other person suffered serious injuries.
At the hospital, Sherman received a sexual assault forensic exam, but after giving up her clothes for forensic examination she wasn't given anything to put back on.
"When I was finished they had nothing for me, I had nothing to wear. They had no underwear, clothing – it was awful," Sherman said in the documentary.
Now living in New Brunswick, she founded We’re Here for You Canada, providing comfort kits to survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence, including clothing and toiletries.
"The lack of resources for women who have experienced sexual assault is one of those things that is just not widely known," Gow told the News Bulletin. "I don't think most people are aware that if a woman needs to have clothing … given up as evidence, there is not resources at a lot of hospitals to then give her clothing afterwards, so she is then forced to walk out of the hospital wearing paper clothing, or, I talked to one nurse that was saying she would have to get clothing from lost and found."
The lack of awareness, Gow believes, is partially caused by people not wanting to discuss topics like sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
"It's one of those issues I don't think many people wouldn't agree is a need that needs to be filled, it's a need that very few people are aware of – at least I wasn't."
Gow said Sherman reached out to him about two years ago about the possibility of covering the story.
"Immediately I could tell it was a huge story and Sarah was as engaging and inspiring a figure as I would be able to find to do a documentary…" Gow said. "To be able to find somebody who has endured that level of intensity and still comes out of it as this deeply inspiring figure is as good a story as I ever want to tell. First we tried to get money for it, CBC came on board and a few months later we now get to show it off to the world."
The documentary can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1M96ZZe6ZY.
