Isla Bell's Legacy

Isla Bell's Legacy Isla Bell's Mum and family creating a legacy for my murdered daughter. Advocating for women's rights to live safely, changing laws, media reporting and culture.
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15/06/2026

Discussing some aspects of Isla's life is traumatic and likely triggering for many people. I will not be speaking about the specific facts, people or evidence in the current active case. I am sharing my agonising experience of our flawed and broken Criminal Justice System in Victoria that fails thousands of women in silence every year.

Over the weekend a solicitor reached out to me to share she left the OPP because it felt like leading lambs to be slaughtered. Two Child sexual assault detectives also contacted me sharing the traumatisation caused by the OPP is so gruelling that they have told their family and friends to never engage with it if anything ever happened to them. They want to protect their loved ones health and safety.

When the OPP took over I thought that they were representing Isla but they only represent the Crown. I am considered and treated as a third party, passive witness not a participant. I am more invested than anyone in this case and I am fed BS and kept in the dark because no one is legally representing me or Isla for that matter. The intergenerational trauma gets normalised to the loved ones left living and the perpetrators who's actions are normalised.

I have endured many distressing phone calls throughout my daughter Isla’s life of 19 years and 50 weeks but this particu...
15/06/2026

I have endured many distressing phone calls throughout my daughter Isla’s life of 19 years and 50 weeks but this particular call broke me. On November 19th 2024, my dear brother phoned me. "A man has just been arrested for the alleged murder of Isla."

The primal anguish I expressed in that moment was interpreted by neighbours as a crime scene. My brother was 3 hours from the nearest town, on his own and unsupported. A Vic police detective had handballed that task onto him.

The following day, the grizzly details of her murder case was headlined in the media. Without warning, without thought to the trauma it would inflict on those who love Isla.

Headlines were sensationalised, details graphic, language victim blamed, sources were not referenced and images chosen of Isla dressed in lingerie were used, all without permission or consent.

Police justified the details were necessary to ensure bail was refused citing that they assumed the Magistrate would not grant bail, read it publicly or release it to the media.

My darling daughter was denied her dignity and respect and treated in such a grotesque, demeaning and dehumanising way in both her death and the media decisions that followed. Sonya Kilkenny Anika Wells MP Michelle Rowland MP

09/06/2026

We all deserve justice and the opportunity for our stories to be told and felt by the perpetrators that inflicted the damage.
The prevailing culture of misogyny impacts all of us whether we are aware of it or not. Systems need urgent reform and so do the people that turn up operating these systems.
Let's turn up and talk about it and figure out how we feel before we enter thoughts of defeat.
Everyone welcome.

The time will be listed tomorrow and if it changes I will let you know.

05/06/2026

Thank you for your inspired poem. Roz shared with me last night that she was inspired by my words that shared despite Isla's tremendous suffering and the life experiences she endured she chose to love life anyway. Isla was a force of nature that chose to throw herself into life with her wild heart opened wide. My little care bear from the get go. Kindness and integrity in spades.

Please ignore Deadly in the background, he sounds like a warthog but he is actually a dog. He was there for Isla night and day and would sleep in under her safe doona til luchtime. I reckon he misses that.

The Australian judicial system, Vic Police, Victims of Crime Financial Assistance Scheme and media do not uphold our hum...
04/06/2026

The Australian judicial system, Vic Police, Victims of Crime Financial Assistance Scheme and media do not uphold our human rights because Australia does not have a Human Rights Act. Just like perpetrators, they get away with what they can, while they can.

Historically, women and children have been treated as second class citizens since British Westminster colonisation of Australia.

I engaged with every protective system Vic state had available in the public and private sector. I left no stone unturned, running on adrenaline my whole life. The end result captured my daughter; Isla being wheeled out in a fridge wrapped in plastic and moved around the city for 6.5 weeks! Men have the right to silence!

I was asked to protect the integrity of the case by the OPP and Detectives in one breath, only to be told "I can say what I want," in the next.

I taught Isla that trust and respect has to be earned. When it is broken it needs to be earned back. Sick of our systems that uphold a man's entitled right to privilege without earning it promoting the toxic culture we live in. All girls and women I speak to are not living; they are surviving and made to feel like asking for more is too much!

Women and children, we need to collectively come together to draw a line in the sand. The powers that be need to feel us disengage from all systems and demand they earn our trust and respect back.

03/06/2026

I'm finding it hard to move through my emotions that are a direct result of how the OPP has chosen to interact with me. The valid rage I feel so big that it will make me physically sick if I hold on to it. So I am left with grief, sadness, injustice, powerlessness. To be honest, I will likely dissociate in my future interactions with the OPP as a symptom of how re-traumatising this process is. The OPP and Detectives drip feed information as it becomes known. I asked for honest answers and scenarios and was told they did not want to go down that path if that scenarios does not eventuate. I would much prefer everything to be on the table so I can regulate my emotions and nervous systems. The OPP and law does not recognise me as a lifelong victim I am merely collateral damage.

All people in positions of power that I have spoken to agree that the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) has treated me...
03/06/2026

All people in positions of power that I have spoken to agree that the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) has treated me and my family terribly. This system is independent of State government and can get away with what they can while they can just like the perpetrators. This is due to the laws they proudly uphold that do not centre victims. The jury represents community expectations and the DPP removes this mechanism from the equation if there is a 1% chance there could be another explanation! Doesn't sound reasonable to me.

I have connected with a beautiful young woman who had to move out of the flats where my daughter, Isla was last seen alive. She has treated me with care, dignity and respect. She saw Isla in the garden and excitedly thought she may be a new friend for her to get to know not knowing that Isla had hours of life left in her. This young girl is bravely trying to navigate her healing journey, likely without any financial support from FAS as their criteria is "very strict" the CEO defiantly told me. She returned to the flats and met the man who now lives in the flat where Isla took her final breathe. Perhaps he didn't want to live here and has no other options? He shared that he talks to Isla often and created this japanese garden in her honour and memory. I am moved to tears. Isla would love it. Generating loving thoughts that create peaceful feelings is free. It doesn't suppress the s**t feelings but helps transform them.

My shopify store is open! I was overwhelmed with interest and stocked that all 40 T-shirts sold at Isla's Justice Vigil....
22/05/2026

My shopify store is open! I was overwhelmed with interest and stocked that all 40 T-shirts sold at Isla's Justice Vigil. I am so grateful for the beautiful comments written on the public live recording too. People are coming outta the woodwork and I do not feel alone. Your support means I can be an advocate.
No. 1. pushing for National trauma informed media legislation around gendered violence which was recommended in South Australia's Royal Commission in 2025. I am in communication with Sonya Kilkenny MP and will keep you updated. Remember, it can't be one of us, it has to be all of us!

22/05/2026

So here is my shopify store link! I'm locked outta my laptop and couldn't produce a more professional looking post. So many beautiful hearts have been asking about T-shirts I felt that this was better than nothing. I am in communication with and will be advocating for
1. National, trauma informed media legislation around gendered violence. A South Australian Royal Commission recommended this in 2025. I am so grateful for the communities support and donations that enable me to be an advocate. Remember, it can't be one of us, it has to be all of us! 🧡

My heart has been broken by the injustices inflicted upon my daughter Isla Bell. The OPP gave me 15 hours notice that on...
19/05/2026

My heart has been broken by the injustices inflicted upon my daughter Isla Bell. The OPP gave me 15 hours notice that one of the accused was going to walk free. This was never mentioned as a possibility. The truth is now being told about the accused to our community after the fact. Retired Detectives, police, Barristers, Crown Prosecutors, Judges have reached out expressing their dismay. How could this happen? Our hearts have an idea and our Prime Minister wants women and children to soldier on as normal and feel grateful for the crumbs of funding being drip fed to bandaid the symptoms of our toxic culture. This is not a bandaid to suppress the honest stories of our women and children and how they were killed and how perpetrators got away with it. This is ongoing systemic oppression.
The artist who painted this portrait did so with an open heart which cost nothing. The richness and diversity of support that is flowing towards me after Isla’s vigil is opening my heart to love and setting me free. That is what creates a healthy, honest society that holds each other to account. With love comes responsibility, not blame. Anthony Albanese, the community expects you, as a man in a leadership position to have integrity. What are you so afraid of? Living in a society that protects and respects its women and children is a baseline standard and expectation of our communities.

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