Brenda Hodge

Brenda Hodge (born 1951) was the last person to be sentenced to death in Australia. She was found guilty of murdering her de facto partner in 1984 and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Brenda was born Dorothy Brenda White in Victoria in 1951 to Beryl Nanette MacKenzie. Her childhood was unhappy. She was frequently the victim of beatings by her alcoholic mother. Her brother Danny constantly bullied her and she grew up with numerous of her mother's partners. Brenda claimed to have been sexually abused when she was as young as four, by a babysitter who would continue to sexually abuse her for nine more years. As a child she began skipping school.

In 1965, her mother left her stepfather and brother, Edd, and took her to live in Carlton. Brenda got a job, but her mother began spending most of the money on alcohol. Brenda took a job working on a farm, where she was happy at first, but left due to a dispute with the owner.

One night her mother sent her off with one of her male friends to the pub. After taking her to a park, he raped her, telling her that her mother had allowed him to have sex with her in exchange for alcohol money. After being sent to court, she was charged with being a 'neglected child' and placed into a reformatory in Melbourne.

After escaping, she was sent between mental hospitals and reformatories, until her biological father contacted her, inviting her to live with him in Brisbane. She later found out he was an alcoholic too and he pressured her into having sex with him. Soon after she ran away and was put into a mental hospital. She was eventually released into a charity worker's care. She started working in various places throughout Queensland, moving to Darwin and eventually, Western Australia. Brenda married a man named David Hodge in 1972, divorcing in 1977.

She became involved with a police officer, Peter Rafferty, while working in Leonora in 1983. Their relationship was unhappy and plagued with several fights, due to his alcoholism and her depression. She decided to leave him.

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