Another woman is murdered by a man who claimed to love her.

Looking at this photograph, you would have no idea that Angela Ferullo [right] was in fear for her life. And yet tragically, the 43-year-old would be dead 24 hours after it was taken.

This beautiful mother and daughter moment, shot at a family christening, was captured just one day before violently Ferullo was murdered by her ex-husband, James Payet.

To the casual observer, there is no way of telling that beneath the smile, Ferullo was hiding pure unadulterated fear and panic. Like so many Australian women who live at risk of violence from those they love, Ferullo was putting on a brave and happy face for those around her.

Ferullo had been receiving violent threats from her ex-husband for some time, which meant she was incredibly nervous about her own safety. Police has in fact made an order against Payet, requiring him to stay away from Ferullo, after he specifically threatened to confront her at the christening of her grand-daughter.

Ferullo was so petrified that she didn't even stay for the after-christening reception, choosing instead to leave early.

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On the day of her death, Angela Ferullo was working with one of her other daughters, Selina Bello, in the hairdressing salon they jointly owned in the Western Australian town of Como. Bello was five months pregnant with her first child and attending to a customer, when Payet entered the premises armed with two hunting knives.

He inexplicably started stabbing Bello in what was described later to the courts as a "frenzy".

Instinctively, Angela Ferullo threw herself on top of her pregnant daughter's body to shield her from the unrelenting blows. In his manic state and no long able to get to Bello, Payet proceeded to stab his ex wife repeatedly, eventually killing her. Ferullo has since been posthumously awarded the Star of Courage for sacrificing her own life to save her daughter. 

Payet also attacked a customer, Ms. Alexander-Kew, when she tried to intervene before fleeing the salon. Ms. Alexander-Kew, who also received the Star of Courage, told the ABC:

"I picked up a hairdressing chair and thought I've got to knock him out. I brought it down on his head and I cut his eye, and of course he turned on me then and punched me across the head and I went flying backwards.”

What has been left behind is a family and a community who are shocked, mourning and shattered. In a recent Facebook post, Selina Bello - who only survived because of the brave actions of her mother and a stranger - had this to say:

"Mum you were the strongest most inspirational woman I ever had the pleasure of knowing, it tears me apart knowing that your not here with us celebrating today... I hope your looking down on us holding you head high with pride assured knowing that you will never be forgotten and your legacy will always live on through your 4 children."

(We suspect readers would want to be reassured that despite being badly wounded, Bello went on to give birth to a healthy son).

In the lead up to the attack, Payed had become increasingly erratic and violent towards his ex-wife and her daughters; both in person and via text message. The ABC reports that “in the months before the murder their relationship deteriorated and on one occasion he held a knife at Angela's throat and said he would slit it if she went to the police or sought a restraining order.”

Angela Ferullo's life was taken by someone she knew, someone she once cared for, someone who she once loved.Her death is yet another stunning display of how current domestic violence laws are failing Australia's women.

It is almost incomprehensible that Angela Ferullo had reached out for help from the authorities, that she was in the process of having a permanent order taken out against her ex-husband so that he would be required to keep his distance at all times.

It wasn't enough to keep her safe.

The gut-wrenching truth is that this is not an incident. Too many Australian women are scared to leave a situation of family violence because they fear exactly what happened to Ferullo. They worry that retribution will be sought, that their already-violent partners will be triggers to more extreme actions if they leave, that the system will not keep them safe.

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Speaking recently at the ‘All About Women’ conference in Sydney, relentless campaigner against domestic violence and Australian of the Year, Rose Batty, spoke frankly about the need for a flawed system to be overhauled. Batty's own son Luke was killed at the hands of his father.

Batty told the audience that day: “We have to work until we have every policeman, every magistrate, every judge understanding the complexities of family violence.”

On average, two women are dying at the hands of their partners or someone they know each week in our country. If these women were dying as a result of a contagious illness, we'd be calling it an epidemic. And that's exactly what this is. A epidemic of violence against women that we have allowed to go on for far too long.

The number of women who are killed at the hands of men they once loved, is devastating. There are, tragically, so many reports in the media each week - even more so this year - that it can be easy to switch off, and turn away from the horror.

But we need to keep talking about this topic until our governments take notice, take action and fix this very broken system.

Perhaps then we will have a hope of keeping women like Angela Ferullo safe.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live: they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.