Celeste Mono was just twenty three years old when her life was stolen in the middle of the night, murdered in her own bed by a man she barely knew. For over a year, she had been stalked, harassed, and ignored by a system that failed to protect her despite all the warning signs. This is the heartbreaking and infuriating story of how kindness was mistaken for consent, and how inaction cost a young woman her future.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked Ingram.
A true crime podcast.
Warning.
The following podcast and material intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised.
Did you notice my little stall in there? I like forgot for a hot minute? Again, What the hell I was supposed to say? Because I went and I'm Nicole? Oh shit, I'm more.
Well, you got it. You did it?
Oh wow.
I think if you paused any longer, it would have been like awkward. But I think you paused just long enough that it was like different, in a little bit suspenseful, you know what I mean.
And no one would have noticed if I didn't say anything unless you did. Because you've seen the fear in my eye for hot minute that I was like, oh no, I have more.
Well, I'm sure people listening like caught that it was different, but they would have assumed it was on purpose. But now you outed yourself, So good job I did. We got an interesting story today, and in our pre show over on Patreon, you brought up something in the intro that you wanted to highlight, kindness was mistaken for consent.
Yeah, and I was like, wow, there's a lot of truth there.
There really is, And I really want to highlight the word mistaken because in this story, this individual doesn't misunderstand the kindness for consent. They mistake kindness for consent. And so when I really want to highlight that and show is that they specifically take it as consent. They choose they don't misunderstanding it and misunderstand it and oh, I'm so sorry, my bad sort of thing. It's a persistent continuing. They choose to take it as consent.
They twist it to be what they want it to be exactly. Yeah. So so yeah, there's two coins there, but I mean both is terrible.
Two sides to the coin.
Yeah yeah, yeah, so I don't know, I just yeah, I just when you read that, I was like, I hate that. That is just terrible, because, oh, you don't want to be an asshole. But then sometimes you have to, like, I don't be firm. I guess is what it is.
More so, well, definitely, and in this case you'll find out that, I mean, Celeste, who is the victim. She wasn't being an asshole, She wasn't leading anyone on. She wasn't being overly kind or overly for flirtatious in any sort of the word. She just simply was being nice.
Wasn't being rude or yeah, it wasn't.
Being rude, and she was being she was cutting, shutting it down when necessary, but it was still a choice to continue and persist. And it's unfortunate how often that actually happens in the real world still today.
So yeah, yeah, it's not good.
I mean, there is a difference to being like no means no. We totally get that no does mean no, But when someone's like no, stop, like, that's a little different. You read the situation. But if someone's like no stop, yeah, you better fucking stop.
Yeah yeah.
But if someone specifically says no, yeah, consent is important. And this guy in this story, trust me does not understand consent because it goes a lot farther and unfortunately, a lot farther than it should have.
Okay, well, let's hear it. Okay, let's dive in.
In the early hours of November sixteenth, twenty twenty, the quiet of a suburban Melbourne street was shattered by the sound of breaking glass. Inside the Mono family home, twenty three year old Celeste was asleep in her bed. She had spent the evening making plans for her upcoming birthday with her mother, and just said good night the way that she always did, with love, warmth and a smile.
Moments later, her life, unfortunately, though, was stolen in an act of violence that would never have been expected to happen, and never should have happened either. Her mother, Aggie, was jolted awake by the crashing sound of glass breaking. She rushed to Celeste's room just steps away, only to walk in into a nightmare. Shards of glass the floor, blood was everywhere, and there, lying motionless on her bed was Celeste.
What followed would devastate a family, stun a nation, and leave many asking the same gut wrenching question, how could this happen? Now, as it turns out, this wasn't some random act of violence. It wasn't a mystery. In fact, the warning signs had been there for well over a year. Celeste had done everything she was supposed to do, blocked her stalker, report him to police, asked for help, and unfortunately she just lived in fear. Yet the system that
was meant to protect her simply didn't. Now, before we get into anything else, let's start right at the beginning of the story. Celeste Mona was a daughter, a sister, and a friend. She had bright light that shone into the world of everyone who knew her. She was born on November twenty second, nineteen ninety six in Italy and later moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia. She grew up with two brothers, an older half brother, Jaden and
a younger brother, Alessandro. The bond she shared with them, especially with her mom, Aggie, was incredibly strong. Celeste had that rare kind of warmth that just pulled people in. She was the kind of person who made everyone feel included, whether it was at school or work or just out with friends. She had a way of making people feel seen and feel valued and safe. She loved dancing, music,
good food, and simple joys in life. She found beauty in everyday moments, and she gave love freely, without hesitation or without judgment.
She sounds incredible.
She definitely does seem like.
A special person, like hard to find kind of those people, one.
Of those hidden gems sort of say. But the thing though, is though she she just wasn't She wasn't just kind. She was also very smart and driven too. So Less studied criminology and psychology university because she wanted to understand people better.
Oh I feel like this would make that even worse.
Yeah. Not just for her own curiosity though, but she wanted to help others. So when she said that she wanted to understand people better, it wasn't because she's just like, Oh, I just want to understand people and know what makes them tick and you know, maybe tricks how I can improve, you know, connections with people at work to better my career. No, she actually wanted to help others because her dream was to become a psychologist and support people through their struggles.
Oh wow, yeah, that's awesome.
She wanted to be a guide for those who felt lost. Basically now at the time, of her death, she was working as a team leader at a call center in Melbourne, North Northeast. It was there that she met her boyfriend Chris Risdale. Ridsdale, Ridsdale. There, Ridsdale, Ridsdale. The D is before the S, not Risdale. It's r I D S D so Ridsdale. Okay, okay, yeah, it'll trip you up
if you look at it real quick. You gotta really be careful, because trust me, it tripped me up several times in research and even well the first time trying it on here.
Yeah, and it might again, Yeah, it probably will. Now.
Their relationship was still new, but it was full of laughter and late night phone calls that never ended up with one of them volunteering to hang up first. It was, you know, like, oh you hang up first, you hang up first, the sweet little like you know, relationships so cute. Chris later described loving Celeste as effortless. To quote him, she just had this energy. She made you want to do better.
Holy shit, that's so nice. Just effortless like that is nice.
Yeah, Celeste was at that beautiful point in life where the future that felt wide open. She had dreams that she was working towards people who loved her deeply and a big heart that still had so much more to give now. In twenty eighteen, Luey Seiko was hired as a customer service rep at the same call center where Celesti had worked. He wasn't particularly social or successful at his job. In fact, co workers described him as quiet, introverted,
and often quite withdrawn. By twenty nineteen, just a year in, he was unfortunately let go from that position due to poor performance. Now Celeste was his team leader at the time. They weren't close by any means, they didn't hang out, and in fact, they barely interacted at all. But when the day came for Luey to leave, she did as she always did. She was kind. She walked him out of the building, wished him well and kept things polite and professional, and offered him a handshake as she gave
him those well wishes. Right, you know, I wish you all the best.
It just sucks she's doing her job, but exactly what it is.
Yeah, but what Celeste saw as a brief compassionate gesture in that handshake, Luey misread completely. Before she could even turn away, he held onto her hand in that handshake and leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Now, Celeste was very much so caught off guard.
Uh huh.
And when she got home, she told her mom and younger brother what had happened and how embarrassed and uncomfortable she felt in that moment and even still lingering in that in this conversation as she told it to her family.
Well, yeah, that's like awkward as shit. But she didn't do anything.
She didn't. Eggie tried to calm her nerves, assuming it was just a harmless goodbye, maybe a misunderstood crush, you know, telling her that he probably liked her the entire time that he worked there and just act on impulsive nerves in the moment. Right, But whatever it was, that kiss was the moment something darker clicked into place for Lue. Just weeks later, he began to message her online.
Okay, but just really quick. Her boyfriend worked there too, right at the call center.
I don't know if he continued to work there. I know he met her there.
Okay, yeah, okay, but still, like I mean, I'm sure there was no signs that she was given this dude, that they were anything more than just.
Oh definitely not It was the handshake, it was the walking him out of the bill, the goodbye, trying to be nice and you know and compassionate in a hurtful moment. I mean, it's not easy being let go from a job like that. So she's just trying to be, you know, a good person to.
Him, trying to make it like as little as less awkward for him as possible.
Really, but yeah, now, at first the messages came in from his real account. He thanked her again for her kindness, and then he professed his love. He told her she was all he could think about, that he was infactuated, captivated, and fascinated by her. He said the image of her was interfering with his ability to even function. It was obsessive right from the start, and he admitted as much. So least being the kind person she was, responded as
gently as she could to begin with. She thanked him for the kind words, but made it clear that she didn't feel the same way. To quote her, I only feel a professional way towards you. I wish you all the best in your new job and journey.
Oh that is that is so awkward, that message, It really is. I feel like I wouldn't even know if I would have responded, so I.
Probably wouldn't have responded either. I probably would have just like blocked. Done. Now, most people would move on one way or another. You know, when they, you know, profess their love to someone over let's say it's Instagram. I'm not sure if it was. I think it was, but I might actually haven't hear written later on what platforms he used, but regardless, let's just say Instagram. For the
heat of the moment. For someone who professes their love on Instagram to someone and that person turns them down, I feel professional towards you. Good luck on your journey. You're probably going to take the hint. At least most people would you move on. But Luey, he's not most people. He messaged her again, and he messaged her again, and once Les finally stopped replying, he created a new Instagram account.
Yeah.
See there were God it was Instagram to reach out to her, so he wouldn't she wouldn't ignore these messages, so that she sees this account messaging her. Now yeah, she's like, I'm not responding and blocking you whatever. Yeah, And now he created a new one so new messages would come in, so she would see it.
That's like a big escalation, really it is.
However, when this happened, the tone of the messages began to shift. They were less poetic and more desperate. Then came the anger. To quote him, You're no different to the majority of women. I will devote every ounce of energy I have to climbing up and providing to the proving, sorry to the world, that I am somebody. This is my promise to you. It's very cryptic and weird and odd and strange.
Well yeah, maybe just do that to prove it to yourself.
Right. Still, she tried to handle it herself. She blocked him, ignored the messages, and hoped it would just stop eventually, and unfortunately it didn't. It persisted as the weeks rolled into months. Luay Seiko's obsession with Celesti. It didn't fade. It intensified. When she blocked one Instagram account, he simply created another, than another, and she blocked that one and another.
He messaged her from over a dozen different usernames, each time with the same goal to get a response from her, and when she didn't respond, his messages would get darker. At first, they were filled with declarations of love as I mentioned, and he wrote about how she was the only one he could ever you know, really see a future with, or the only person to ever made him feel this way, that he couldn't sleep, that he couldn't work,
that she was his quote sun that shines. Oh man, Yeah, it was disturbing, but still yeah, yeah.
Like, what does he think is going to happen with this? It almost seems like he's unwell. I think that's unwell. It's going to be what we soon find out for sure, But like for him to just keep messaging and does he just think she's all of a sudden going to change her mind or some shit or I don't know.
But the messages they would turn very sexual soon. Oh no, in graphic vulgar detail. In fact, Luey began describing things he wanted to do to her. Some were very explicit. That's less. Family later said they couldn't even bring themselves to repeat. In interviews, one message read quote, have you ever had a beast pounce on you? I would pounce on you like a pit bull.
That's so disturbing.
Yeah, there's nothing romantic about that, honestly, that's only just like I as domination. That's scary. That's fucking rapee.
Yeah. Yeah.
Celeste was horrified.
Oh man, I can only imagine just how she's feeling. Like this would consume her, really her life, it would.
It wasn't any was at first. It was uncomfortable, you know, something maybe she could push out of the back of her mind, you know by you know, putting on a podcast, listening to music, going for a drive at work, you know, getting your mind off things one way or another. But this, at this point was no longer something that you could just you know, distract yourself from. This was beginning to be very scary. She told him clearly to stop. She
said the messages were making her deeply uncomfortable. She said no repeatedly, but Lui, he wasn't listening. He responded by blaming her. When she asked him to stop contacting her, He accused her of being like quote the rest, He made himself the victim, painting her rejection as cruelty, and of course, once again it got worse. Seles started to worry that Luey was beginning to follow her, and unfortunately she was right. One day, she saw him parked outside
her work. He wasn't supposed to know where she was working anymore. He wasn't even supposed to know what car she drove. It felt like he was everywhere and that he was watching. The fear was starting to change her life. She began sharing her location with her mom. She asked her boss to walk her to her car after every shift. She tried to be careful online, but she couldn't live her life in total silence just because someone refused to take no for a fucking answer. The emotional toll was mounting,
so less couldn't sleep. She was on the edge at all times. She told coworkers, quote, he's really going to kill me by the early twenty twenty, sorry by the early twenty to me by early twenty twenty.
There we go.
Ce Lessa and her mom and Aggie had enough. The messages weren't stopping, the fear was growing, and Luai's behavior had gotten far out of control. It's now disturbing to outright threatening levels. So they did what anyone would hope to be the right thing. They went to police. They
brought them the screenshots of the messages, accounts evidence. They explained everything, how Celeste had tried to cut out contact, how he'd ignore her, requests how he kept creating new accounts and pestering her, how she'd seen and parked outside her work, and how she was scared, genuinely scared for her safety. But the response they got it was dismissive, cold, and honestly just useless.
How the shit could it be? Are they not doing their job well?
According to Eggie, the officer barely skimmed the messages. What the he told them There was no crime here. He said, quote, it's social media. If you don't like it, get off social media.
Wow, yeah, okay, that's not okay.
Reportedly, he didn't even take Luey Seiko's name down. No formal report, no warning, no documentation, nothing, just basically saying, well, get off social media.
Then, you know, I feel like I often am like, oh, like someone like they're trying, like I always try to see like, you know, the good, but this guy is just shit at his job. There is like no offens buts about it. He sucks.
Agreed that guy should not be in authority session.
Absolutely not.
That guy should just be like Luey and get let go for not being a fucking good off.
Yeah period, Yeah, you suck at your job.
Sorry, Bye bye bye now, lest was stunned at this response as far as that though as far as this visit went, she was obviously on her own.
Well, and I just have to say too, it probably took so much courage for even going there, for sure, and then to be faced with that that is just yeah, so bad.
For the next several months, nothing changed. Seless continued to be harassed online. The messages became more aggressive, more frequent, and more unhinged. Some days she'd block multiple new accounts within hours. She couldn't post online without wondering if he'd see it, which obviously he was. Yeah, she couldn't walk to her car without watching over her shoulder and looking
back behind her to see if he was there. Then, in July twenty twenty, after nearly a year of this, Celeste and Aggie went back to police, and this time they came prepared. They brought a Manila envelope filled with printed screenshots of everything, every account, every warning she had tried to give. And this time they found an officer who took them seriously. Okay, he read through the material, he asked questions, and then he said something that made
Aggie's heart sink. Well, before I tell you the exact quote. He asked, you've been to police already and they're like, yeah, how'd you know? And then he said, quote, let's just say some of us do our job better than others.
Oh no, yeah, So it was just like a known thing that this one guy just doesn't give a shit about anything.
One guy or others who knows. But this officer clearly was taking it more seriously and is aware that there is holes in the system because people just suck.
That just angers me. That is such bullshit. It is.
But unfortunately, I mean, when a system fails, that's the sort of situation you're left with.
I mean, yeah, and we hear it's like that happens in many areas.
Yeah, way too often, but especially.
In an area like that. I just feel like you can't suck at your job. That's like that is I mean, it affects people's lives, for God's sake.
Yeah, it does. Now this officer, he of course, was doing his job, and he immediately recommended that they file for a personal safety intervention order or a PSIO. It's basically a restraining order under Victorian law in Australia, meant to protect someone from harassment or threats, and within days that order was granted.
Because someone was doing their.
Job exactly now, for the first time in over a year, Celeste felt something close to peace. That PSIO gave her legal ground to stand on. It was finally officially on the record. Luey Seiko was not allowed to contact her, and for a while it worked. There were no new messages, no accounts, no sightings of him. It finally felt like she could exhale and relax. But then just weeks later,
something arrived in her inbox. It was a long handwritten letter from lue three pages, begging her to drop the order. He promised things like he wasn't gonna do any more threats or saying that it was just all Instagram dms, whatever that means, and he said she didn't need to worry, and at the bottom of the letter it was finished off with a little smiley face. The only problem with this letter is he had violated the order again, and yet again, Celeste had to be the one to bring
it to the police. So in August of twenty twenty, after sending Celeste that three page letter violating the intervention order, he was arrested.
Okay, good, now.
For a moment, it felt like maybe things were finally done, finally, you know, turning into sleste favor. Maybe now the law would protect her, maybe this whole nightmare would finally be over. But the very next day, Luey was released from custom.
One day, one night, Yeah, one day, which honestly, isn't that bad.
Understandably, he just sent her a letter. He just like, you know, there's a little bit of stocking going on. He just sent her one more message. Okay, keep that in mind. But the worst part about this part of the situation is once he was released, there was no monitoring in place. There was no heightened restrictions, no safety nets, nothing, just you broke the law one night in jail. Okay, bye, No, that's it.
So it's sort of in his mind, well that didn't really like that wasn't that bad?
Maybe? Yeah, I mean, we'll touch on what he thought about it here in a minute. But there was nothing to go along with it to ensure that they're mitigating any sort of risks. Dang, there's no consequences to his actions other than just you know, spending the night. Yeah, and there's nothing to prevent him from doing it again
or escalating any further. Now and Aggie were stunned. After everything, after all the messages, the fear, the warning signs, they just let him go and worse now, he was enraged. It was like being rejected all over again, but this time with legal consequences. To him. That wasn't justice, it was betrayal.
Really. See, I also thought maybe that could just scare the shit out of him a bit, and okay, this is you know, this is going to affect my life now or whatever, so I'll stop.
But he was directly pissed right at Celeste for that. He was blaming her for him getting arrested. It was her fault. How dare she do that to him?
Wow?
He didn't send her any messages after that, He didn't show up to her work again. It looked like things had gone quiet. But that quiet shouldn't be mistaken for peace, because it wasn't peace.
He was plotting.
He was planning. Unbeknownst to Celeste or anyone else, Luey was preparing for something much darker. See, he had started researching. He studied her social media photos and posts to confirm her address. He used online maps to view her street and somehow managed to get a floor plan of her house and he figured out which room was hers.
Shit.
Yeah, now, I'm not saying it was like the floor plan was like blueprints or anything like that, but he figured out some floor plans and he was able to figure out which was hers from pictures, clues, watching the street, all these sort of things. He knew which window of the house was her room.
Holy shit, that's terrifying.
Once he had all this figured out, he purchased a large kitchen knife, a hammer, and he waited. Three months passed. There was no contact, nothing suspicious, nothing at all. Just that quiet that I said was not peace.
Well. Yeah, and in that time, though, she's probably letting her guard down a little.
Yeah, she believed that maybe this is really over. She was starting to, you know, move forward in life again, putting her energy into her relationship with her boyfriend Chris. She was now planning her twenty fourth birthday. She posted a photo with Chris on a rooftop bar, their first date since lockdowns began, erasing you know, their public appearance because hey COVID, Yeah, yep, she looked happy, lighthearted, safe.
It was the kind of photo most of us wouldn't think twice about sharing, but for Luway Seiko, that photo of them was a trigger.
Pissed him right off. I'm sure I guess yeah.
Seeing Celeste smiling, living her life, loving someone else, it shattered the fantasy he'd been clinging to. To him, it wasn't just a post. It was proof that she'd quote moved on, that she'd chosen someone else, that she'd rejected him, not just in words, but an actuality within life. He couldn't accept it, and so in the early hours of November sixteenth, twenty twenty, he put his plan into action. He left his home and he drove to Celeste's. He
circled a block and parked his car. Then he climbed the fence, walked into her backyard and stood beneath her bedroom window in the pitch black of night. Just after four a m. He managed to get to her window. He raised the hammer and shattered that thin glass barrier that was separating him from Celeste. The Mono family home in Mirnda, a quiet suburb of Melbourne, was jolted into chaos. A loud crash of shattering glass woke Celeste's mother, Angie
from her Sorry Aggie from her sleep. Something felt wrong. Immediately deeply wrong. She bolted from bed and ran barefoot down the hallway towards her daughter's room. She's calling out to her, but what Aggie found on the other side of that door was every parent's worst nightmare. Celeste was just twenty three years old, and there she was, lying
motionless on her bed, soaked in blood. Her bedroom window had been smashed, shards of glass scattered across the floor, A large kitchen knife lay on the bed near her feet. In a panic, Aggie screamed her daughter's name and rushed to her side, not even realizing she was running and stepping on broken glass, cutting her feet along the way, and she tried desperately to pull her from the bed,
away from all the glass. Begging her to respond. She called the emergency services and began CPR, but it was too late.
That seems so quick.
In under three minutes, lest had been stabbed twenty three times. What wounds to her chest, abdomen, legs, and arms and defensive wounds that showed she tried to fight back, but according to the corner, it was the first stab wound, the one that pierced her heart, that killed her.
Okay, so she just really didn't stand a chance, I guess nope.
The rest were described as overkill, an explosion of rage and brutality. The attack was so swift and efficient that by the time Aggie reached the bedroom, the killer had already vanished. WHOA now the man who took selest life was no surprise here. Luey Seiko, the man who had stalked her for over a year. He didn't try to hide. Instead, he drove himself directly to a local police station. Still covered in celeste blood. He calmly handed over celeste address
and told officers, quote, she's dead, go have a look. Then, with a chilling detachment from reality, he added, you know what happened, It's your fault.
Oh.
He also tried to provoke officers into shooting him. They didn't. Instead, they arrested him.
Unbelievable. This guy is unbelievable. Yeah, he just blames every anyone else for everything.
Everything.
Gosh, I just like to spise him.
Yeah, nothing's his fault. Back at the Mono home, paramedics arrived quickly, but there was nothing they could do. Celeste was already gone. The young woman who had dedicated her life to kindness, who wanted to be a psychologist to help other people, who had done everything in her power to protect herself from a man she barely knew. She was murdered in her own bed just days before her twenty fourth birthday.
That's so young.
Luey Seiko had stalked her, harassed her, violated legal orders, and told her exactly the kind of man he was, and still nothing had been done to stop him. Now Celeste was gone, and everyone who loved her was left to pick up those pieces. In the days following celest Mono's murder, the grief that settled over her family was immeasurable.
Her mother Aggie, who had cradled her daughter's body just minutes after the attack, was now left with the unbearable silence of a home that would never be the same. Her younger brother Alessandro, once just down the hall, now stood in a space defied by loss, defined by loss sorry. And her father Tony and older brother Jaden, they each shattered in their own way, joined in a morning process that would never truly end. More than one hundred people
attended Sles's funeral. She was remembered not just for the tragic way that her life ended, but for the light that she brought to others while she was here, her laughter, her warmth end, as I mentioned many times, her immense kindness. The community rallied behind the Mono family, devastated by the senseless murder that just occurred. Meanwhile, luey Seiko was in custody. In the weeks and months that followed, the legal proceedings would drag on. It would be far from smooth to
manipulate the justice system from inside his cell. He fired and rehired lawyers multiple times, delayed hearings, classic every move in the book sort of thing, to prolong whatever he could. He changed his plea and even attempted to represent himself in court. At one point, he tried to argue that he'd only inflicted two wounds, even though they were twenty three.
Yeah. Yeah, good luck with that one, buddy.
Yeah, it was easily disproved. He leaned heavily on claims of mental illness, of course, telling psychiatrists he'd been influenced by a hallucinated figure named Isaiah, But multiple forensic experts they saw right through it. They noted that his descriptions matched textbook criteria too closely, almost like someone who had studied the symptoms rather than someone truly suffering from them.
In one psychiatrist's view, the hallucinations that he claimed were likely just Luay's way of separating himself from the violent side of his personality, basically an easy way to deflect the blame. Despite these manipulations, the court eventually found Luey Seiko fit to stand trial. He pled guilty to celess murder in early twenty twenty four, over three years after
the crime. On February twenty ninth, twenty twenty four, Justice Jane Dixon handed down the sentence thirty six years in prison, with a possibility of parole after thirty The courtroom was packed with seless family and friends, dressed all in black, holding each other tightly. As the judge read the sentence. There were tears, not just for the grief they carried, but for the sense that justice once again had fallen short.
Aggie Mono had written two speeches that day, one for if her daughter's killer received life and one if he didn't. When the judge spared him the harshest sentence available under Victorian law, Aggie tore up the first speech and delivered the second, her voice shaking with anger and heartbreak. She called the decision outrageous, accusing the court of showing mercy to a man who had shown her daughter none to quote her at least just a little. It's unbelievable that
the system protected him more than it protected her. I don't believe in parole. I don't believe in releasing murderers to murder again. Celestiano's murder wasn't random it was It wasn't unpredictable either. It was the end result of a system that saw the warning signs over and over, and yet it just failed to act in time. For more than a year, Celeste was stalked, harassed, and threatened by Luet.
She blocked him, reported him, took legal steps to protect herself, and even told police that she feared he might kill her. Yet at every critical point where intervention could have made a difference, the system faltered. When she first went to police, she and her mother were dismissed. The officer they spoke to didn't take notes or records or names, nothing as I mentioned. Instead, celest was told to just ignore it and get off social media. No form of action was taken,
no follow up was done. It wasn't until the second visit months later with pages of evidence in hand that a personal safety intervention order was finally granted because someone actually did their job. Even then, the protection was fragile. When Luey violated the order with a letter being sent to Celest. There was no electronic monitoring after he was released, no risk assessment protocol, no consistent enforcement of legal boundaries to keep her safe.
Now.
Unfortunately, this whole issue isn't unique to Celeste case. Between twenty eleven and twenty twenty, the Australian Victoria Police received over one hundred thousand applications for personal safety intervention orders. During that same period, they recorded nearly twenty six thousand breaches of those orders. That is over twenty five percent breaching the order, along with more than two thy one
hundred stocking offenses. Despite the volume of reports, few of these cases result in significant criminal consequences unless the behavior escalates to violence. So they let it escalate to violence before they do anything, is essentially what I'm.
Saying, huh okay, that's so alarming.
After sless deaths, death public pressure grew. In twenty twenty one, the Victorian Law Reform Commission conducted an in depth review of the state's stalking laws. The report included forty five recommendation measures that would improve early detection, expand to definitions of stalking, and introduce better tools for police response, but as of twenty twenty four, not a single one of
those recommendations has been fully implemented. One tool that did emerge was a screening process known as SASH, a Screening Assessment for stocking and harassment. It was designed for police to help these officers identify high risk cases early and intervene before violence do occur, but four years after Celest's death, the tool still hasn't been rolled out across all police stations,
so it's still a work in progress. When pressed about the delay, Victorian Attorney General acknowledged the importance of the initiative, but offered no clear timeline for full implementation. She said there are no easy fixes, a statement that didn't sit well with those who knew Celest or understood how preventable her death truly was. And in all honesty, it just shows that she doesn't have a fire lit under her
ass because this is a system that could save lives. Yeah, and to say that there's no easy fixes, yeah, you're right, But you can help save people if you get this implemented soon.
Yeah, if you light a fire and on your ass. Yeah.
So while what what she's saying is true, it also shows that she's a little bit too lax celest mother, Aggie has been vocal about these failures. She filed a civil suit against Victoria Police, accusing them of negligence and a breach of duty. Her argument is simple. If police had conducted a proper risk assessment, if there had if they had taken sless fears seriously from the start, if they had enforced the law with urgency the urgency had deserved,
her daughter might still be alive. After losing her daughter in this horrific way, the most horrific way imaginable. Honestly, Aggie could have disappeared into grief, no one would have blamed her. She had experienced what most people can even comprehend, the death of a child, not by accident, but through a slow and painful build up of fear, warning signs and inaction resulting in murder. In fact, she was even there to hold her as her body was still bleeding out.
Yeah, I don't even know how you move forward from that.
Really well, she managed to because instead of retreating, Aggie chose to fight. In the days following seless murder, she made a promise not just to herself but to her daughter. She would get justice, not just in the courtroom, but in the laws, the systems, and the protections that failed
so badly. Her first step was going public. She stood in front of news cameras, not as a spokesperson but as a mother, a mother furious that her daughter's killer was shown mercy by the courts whilst Lest herself had been shown none. When Luey Seiko was sentenced to thirty six years with a non parole period of thirty Aggie ripped up her speech and of course made her resentment quite clear. But she didn't stop at that microphone. Aggie
began pushing for real legislative change. She called for mandatory electronic monitoring of anyone under a personal safety intervention order, arguing that if Luey had been tracked, lest might still be alive. She rallied for law enforcement to treat stalking not as a nuisance or inconvenience, but as a credible threat,
because her daughter that's what it was to her. She also started working with advocacy groups with and legal experts to pressure the Victorian government to implement the full list of reforms recommended by the Law Reform Commission. She highlighted the delay in rolling out the SASH assessment tool, calling it a lack of resources dedicated to early intervention in stocking cases. Her mission is ongoing. She doesn't just want reform,
she wants transformation, and she's not backing down. For every parent who's ever worried about their child's safety, for every woman who's felt unsafe walking to her car, and for every stalking victim who's been told just ignore it, Aggie is determined to be the voice that says this isn't good enough any more. And above all, she's doing it for her daughter, Celeste. And that's the story of Celeste Mono.
Who man, that one just guts Yeah. Yeah. Also, like her mom is incredible, but it's not surprising being that, like she raised also such an incredible person.
Well, and I want to say, Aggie is our badass
of the day. I went on quite a bit of a rent there at the end about Aggie and what she's doing and what she's trying to fight for because I watched there's some interviews with her, and she is like in fucking tears and she's describing in detail what happened, and she's fighting through it all to make sure that she's giving her daughter and other people in that situation a voice and trying to reform the situation and ensure that people do their fucking job and that the system
doesn't fail others and end up in lives being lost. So Aggie is one percent or badass of the day. Yeah, so shout out to her totally.
Yeah. The fact that she's just using like her daughter's death for the for good really and giving her power to like, hopefully this doesn't happen to someone else kind of Yeah, so because it will, Like that's it will it will if nothing's changed, right.
Yeah, Well, unfortunately we live in a world where there are people who don't give a shit and just say we'll get off social media.
Then oh yeah. But the thing is, like, especially this guy, he was like persistent, and you know, if she got off social media like he, it wouldn't matter, No, it wouldn't. He'd find other ways and it wouldn't.
And honestly, why can't she be on social media? She doesn't have to be off it?
One hundred percent. But I'm just saying if she say followed that it's not going to change anything, she just then wouldn't be able to like post shit that she wants to post with her friends. I know, so that's not okay.
But in all honesty, like if we were on the clock back to the seventies, right before there was the internet, before there was social media, we're in the seventies, okay, and someone's stocking you in the seventies, how do they
stalk you? If they're going to be messaging you over and over, they deliver shit to your house so you get physical mail at your mailbox, right, Yeah, Now, imagine taking letters from a stalker to an officer and he looks at them and says, well, don't have an address, then get out of that house.
Are you kidding me?
In today's society, you almost need to be on social media. If you're going to apply for a job, they pretty much always look at your LinkedIn your social history.
Like it would probably be weird if you had nothing.
Exactly how do you keep in contact? Like it's the internet is a part of our daily lives now.
I mean fact, I just have to clarify weird for an employer, not necessarily, Like I actually think having no social media would be awesome, but then we all, like lots of people need it for their jobs and stuff too, Like we post on there to advertise and stuff.
So exactly our job is, well, line is this podcast to tell me to get off social media. That's my living, that's what I do. You can't do that to someone, no, no, so I'm sorry, but right now to that officer, fuck you.
Yeah, well I know you almost hope that guy doesn't have a job anymore.
Really, I honestly do.
But then the numbers you gave to it was so many numbers. It's like you almost wonder if they have enough, you know, people in position to do something when they're getting that many drastic numbers of like I can't remember what it was called, but these people getting this protection and shit right, yeah.
It was the SI. We'll just call it a restraining order because that's basically what it is, but just specifically under the Victorian Australian law. But yeah, the restraining orders, it was like one hundred thousand within that time period I gave and it was over just over twenty five percent of them being breached, like are you kidding me? So, yeah, is there enough people in a position to actually enforce mandaties and process them.
Because I feel like that's something. I mean, that one guy one hundred percent wasn't doing his job, But then some people they might also be like spread away too thin, too right, So true, I don't know. It's honestly really alarming that there is even that many that people are that messed up, that there's that many.
Well, that's those are the ones that are actually reporting it. Yeah, those are the case. That's the Probably it's probably at least double that, probably way more. But just for argument's sake, let's just say it's fifty percent of the actual cases, fifty percent of them get reported, and the other fifty percent just go unreported. So say two hundred thousand in
that period. That's terrible because how many people don't trust the police or feel like they can't go to police, or in a position where they can't speak up, or they just think nothing's going to happen. I'm gonna try and take matters into my own hands, try and solve it. They move, they do, get off social media, you know that sort of stuff.
Yeah, that's what kind of makes you scared shit, let's say about this this world.
Yeah, but then you have people like Aggie yes, oh my, and the officer who actually did do his job. There are good people out there too well.
And that officer too, Like I'm sure that this whole thing just like gutted him, and that first guy probably didn't give a shit at all, which is maddening.
Yeah, like I said to him, fuck you. He's a douche canoe through and through. But anyways, thank you for being here. Hopefully enjoyed this episode. It is a frustrating one. I can understand if you're probably screaming at us over on the other side of this, if you're on headphones or speakers, whatever. But if you do want to check out some other episodes, if you want to get into Patreon, some other of our social media links, because we ain't
getting off social media all. In the description of this podcast, you can check it out if you want to give us a review. We're an indie podcast, produced research host on our own. There's no big corporation pulling strings like puppeteering us. We do what we want, when we want, how we want it, and if you like that, we'd appreciate a good review from you because it really helps us.
We sure would, we sure would.
Yeah. Anyways, thank you for being here, and until next time, stay wicked.