A Tasmanian woman whose mother was killed by her ex-husband is calling for changes to prison procedures, after receiving dozens of letters from the murderer. Romany Wake spent months trying to stop the letters, despite telling Hobart’s Risdon Prison that she did not want to have any form of contact from her father.
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00:00When Rachel Wake was killed by her ex-husband Darren Wake on Christmas Day three years ago,
00:08the trauma was overwhelming for her daughter Romani.
00:10She was the best mum in the entire world.
00:13She dedicated her entire life to me and my little brother and she was just so kind.
00:19But Romani's trauma continued after her father went to prison.
00:23So I got a phone call from the prison not long after Christmas Day being like, hey,
00:27he wants to contact you, will you be okay being on his contact list?
00:30I immediately said no, as I did not want anything to do with him.
00:35But refusing to receive phone calls didn't stop all communication.
00:39Darren Wake was still able to send letters to Romani, first directly and then via third
00:44parties.
00:45At first it was only one letter a day, but then it turned into five or six letters a
00:49day.
00:50So every day coming home there would be a fair few new letters in the mailbox.
00:55I was terrified.
00:57She had to get a restraining order to stop him contacting her.
01:00I don't want anyone else to experience what I went through with this because it was quite
01:04traumatic.
01:05In this instance I think the government should do everything it can to get to the bottom
01:08of how it's occurred and why it's taken so long to act.
01:11It's not an acceptable situation and it shouldn't happen in the future.
01:16In a statement the Department of Justice said it's investigating how Romani Wake was contacted
01:20and has put in place extra measures to make sure it doesn't happen again.
01:25It says the prison service does have arrangements in place to prevent mail going to people who've
01:29said they don't want to receive letters from prisoners, but Romani Wake says it should
01:34be more straightforward.
01:35What I want to see happen is a solid line made of when someone says no to receiving
01:43calls so that also is any other form of communication.