Step Out Against Violence campaign return with big voices

Judy Langridge, with committee members Liz Marmo and Jen Tait, is back with the Step Out Against Violence campaign to reclaim their voices and those of women, men and children who have experienced or are going through acts of violence.

That will be marked by a march through Albury to get under way in Swift Street tomorrow at 11am, led by The Scots School pipe band.

The event, the Albury mother said, would allow many other survivors to "step out" too and share their stories.

Mrs Langridge, the founder of the campaign, spoke yesterday about her severe physical attack in 1994 and from when she was sexually abused by an Albury masseur later jailed.

This motivated Mrs Langridge to reach out to her support team about beginning the march to empower survivors.

Mrs Langridge said the campaign was put on pause the previous couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the committee was back she wanted the public to get behind the movement.

"I never wanted to be that crisis girl or the sexual abuse girl," she said.

"I was living a nice and happy life, it was great, and I went for a massage one morning and I was sexually abused.

"I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to report it."

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Mrs Langridge said she was in "a state of constant trauma" and "had a really hard time" during a period when she had little time to spare.

"I had two children and was doing breakfast club each morning," she said.

"I didn't want to go through the police process because I had experiences with them from the 1994 assault, but I wanted to march."

Mrs Langridge said the committee wanted to create a safe place for victims.

"We are told all our lives, don't say anything, don't make a fuss," she said.

"But we are going to make a fuss.

"I'm reflecting on what happened to me then and is still happening now. The kill rate (of women to domestic violence) is still the same."

The committee said people didn't need to be survivors to come to the march, which Ms Marmo said was about breaking the silence.

"We need to make sure that folks out there realise there is support and confidentiality," she said.

"Make your signs, get your shirts out - we are back, and we aren't going anywhere," Mrs Langridge said.

The Step Out Albury-Wodonga committee sees the march as part of continuing the conversation across the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

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