IN LOVE WITH A RUTHLESS PSYCHOPATH

About six years ago, I moved to Australia. Looking forward to a year, potentially two-year visa. Almost immediately, I crossed paths with some unique humans from New Zealand. Honestly, they are the most genuine, lovely people I had the pleasure to meet. I quickly attained work at a tattoo shop in Fremantle called five-star tattoo. The owner and his son are a riot. Easily the most pleasant experience I’ve had working in a shop. Everyone there was super rad and talented. If you are ever in Perth, defiantly check them out. Everything seemed to be on the up, and up I worked at a wicked shop and lived with a crazy old boomerang man. Now, this is the part where my dream vacation slowly morphed into a nightmare. Everyone you meet is either a lesson or a blessing.

I ended up meeting someone and stayed in Perth instead of checking out the gold coast. I noticed early on in the relationship my new friend appeared to be an alcoholic. One night, he decided to drink a whole bottle of whiskey. At this point, we were about six months into the relationship, and we had started living together. He became increasingly upset that night over nothing until he started yelling at me. He screamed, “what we were even doing.” From my perspective, it didn’t seem to make much sense. He picked me up and hurled me across the room into a cement wall as if I was a rag doll. Sheer adrenaline brought me to my feet in seconds. He picked up a drill and started chasing after me. I ran over to the neighbors and asked them to call the police. Quin proceeded to start stealing my things. As he got into his vehicle, I managed to get between him and the door. When I tried to reach for my computer, he grabbed my chest and twisted it down to guide me away. I cracked him in the nose with my phone and grabbed my laptop. A chase pursued around the truck with it locked. Finally, he unlocks the vehicle to try and make a quick exit with my stuff. I open the back passenger door and grab my bag as he sped away. I can only assume that he had spotted the cops at this point.

Australia takes domestic abuse very seriously. The police were on the scene within five minutes; they brought me to the station to report the attack. They detained Quin shortly after I had finished at the station. The police let him go under one condition. He did not come within three hundred feet of the property. Failer to do so on his part means he would then face charges from the crown. The police returned about three hours after the incident took place. The cops notified me they had spotted his truck in front of the property. They told me they believe he fled to the park across the street and had dogs tracking him down as we spoke. Shortly after, he was arrested and brought to jail.

Domestic violence is horrifying the physical abuse is just the tip of the iceberg, the mental abuse is what keeps people in it. I consider myself lucky I didn’t get brainwashed into thinking I deserved that treatment. Quin’s mother posted his bail, and he came after me. At this point, work was slow. I knew I needed to find a way to quickly make a lot of money. I started pretending like everything was normal and made every effort not to upset him. During this time, I figured out a way to get out fast. I started doing sexy massages as I feared for my safety and needed an exit plan yesterday. When it was time to flee the country, I purged enough things to be down to two suitcases, a carry-on, and my backpack. I sent my car to the wrecker and boarded a flight to Greece. To add insult to injury, I was robbed on the train when I arrived in Athens. They took my wallet from my bag without me noticing. Make sure if you are taking transit in Greece to hold on to your bags and have your wallet tucked away in a safe place that will be hard for pickpockets to get at. If you appear to look like a tourist you will be targeted. There are a number of tricks they can pull so be alert and cautious. Thieves have been known to cut open the bottoms of bags or bump you around while you are exiting the train to through your pockets. It is usually a sting operation and you are targeted by a group of thieves. The lady I was renting from came to the rescue and retrieved me from the train. Let me tell you, attempting to be frugal with three suitcases is a farce. Not to mention most of the streets in Athens are cobblestone. I still don’t know how I managed.

I was under the impression at the time I wasn’t being stalked. The charges from the crown prohibit the person from leaving the country before their court date. I posted on social media that I had arrived in Athens. Quinn contacted me a few days later and told me he was in Greece. You can imagine the terror that engulfed me, learning he had followed me. I attempted to cut off all communication again and refrained from posting anything on social media. I made plans to move on to the next place as soon as possible. Flying within Europe can be extremely cheap if you don’t have luggage. So if you are planning on doing a trip to Europe pack light! I met this unbelievable lady who didn’t speak English at a pub by my air BnB. We became friends despite the language barrier, and she let me stay with her. I gave her half of my belongings and took the next plane out of there. You can fly around Europe for pennies if you only have a personal item. When you have luggage, the price goes up drastically. My flight at the last minute not including luggage was around 70 euros.

I arrived in Paris and started looking for work. If you plan to go to Paris to work you need to apply for a visa before you leave your country of residence. You will not be able to work if dont have your paper work. They are extremely strict on this point you won’t even be able to get a nanny job at someones house without them so it is definatly a good idea to make sure thats in order before you set out on your trip. So since I had already dipped into the industry, I tried stripping. I did one stage dance, more like a topless hip-hop dance, because I had no idea what I was doing. I made negative eight euros that night as they made me pay for my drink. The boss told me that you only make money by doing private shows. I have been a patron of many strip clubs across North America; I have never seen one where people don’t throw money on stage (except for this one). So I figured this wasn’t the job for me, and I walked out after about an hour of starting my shift. I was dead broke now and couch surfing now at this point. Things looked bleak, and I had consistently been in survival mode for at least three months. Finally, I had no choice but to reach out to the family to get back to Canada. If you are foreigner with any charges against you, Canada will not let you enter the country. Unfortunately, returning home did not end the harassment. He exhausted every effort to bring me down, including sending countless emails to tattoo shops in Vancouver, slandering my name as an artist. He made fake sex advertisments and websites for me on various sites stealing my photos from social media. This abuse went on for two years after I arrived back in Canada. I’m still beside myself at the amount of effort and time put into trying to bring me down. Mental abuse is no joke! It took me a year and a half of hard work and personal growth to retreive my sanity and confidance back. I never in a million years thought something like this could happen to me I am a strong independant woman, But it did and it could happen to you too. It is important to watch for signs and avoid these toxic kind of people. I always thought well why don’t they just leave them then if the person is an asshole? Unfortunatly this is not as easy as it sounds. People who exibit this kind of behavior are usually very smart at manipulating the person they are with though gas lighting and mental abuse. Even the strongest person can fall victim to this type of behavor.

If you are involved with an abusive partner, I hope this story gives you the strength to get out or, at the very least, seek help. I know that abused victims rarely reach out, continuing in the relationship out of fear. It took me a couple of years after the harassment stopped to even speak up about it. I was scared to talk openly for a long time. I was living in fear that he would come after me again if I were to stir the pot. Well, I’m not scared now! I truly hope this inspires others to speak up about their experiences. This abomination’s full name is Quinton Neighbor, the bricklayer. Seriously watch out for this asshole! His ex-wife has completely cut ties with him and filed restraints. I can only imagine the number of other women this person has assaulted. Even if this successfully saves one person from enduring a similar experience, it will have been worth it.