Mandurah woman walks away from living nightmare

As a young woman, Mandurah mother-of-two Susan Emms (49) led an ordinary life.

She travelled overseas to further her hairdressing career, played on the state netball team and married a loving man, whom she was with for 19 years.

Four years after her divorce, she met Colin Peter Casey, who is currently serving a 20-year-minimum life sentence, for the murder of Mandurah grandmother Helen Bromley. 

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“At the start it was perfect,” she said. 

Things went down-hill when Casey began physically abusing Susan. 

“I was in a hole...there was never a day when I wasn’t black and blue,” she said.

“I started using methamphetamine to cope.

“Everybody copes with a bad situation in different ways...my way of coping was substance abuse.

“Looking back now, all it did was disable me.”

Susan recounted the time she fled to Albany to hide from Casey after he beat her at eight-months pregnant, bearing his child.

Susan lost her children to the Department of Child Protection, sending her further down a drug spiral.

Casey continued to abuse Susan, and got a “great thrill” in telling her about the murder.

“In other words, ‘If you dont play the game, the same thing will happen to you and your mum’,” she said.

“That was his way of having me right there.”

Susan told police and was bugged with listening devices, which led to Casey’s arrest and imprisonment.

“For that, I got spat on...all the wrong people would yell at me on the street, tell me I’m a dog,” she said.

“I went downhill again after that.”

Susan said the feeling of losing her children was “the most traumatic thing” that ever happened to her, and was what subsequently helped her stop using drugs.

“I made bad choices,” she said.

“My choice was to numb myself and that was really wrong. 

“Now I have a clear mind. I can see that, and it’s easy for me to be clean and want to do the right thing.

“Having a clear mind is a high on its own.”

Since being clean, Susan had dedicated her life to her loved ones, and focused on being a good mother to her children.

“I’ve had to really prove myself so everyone can trust me again,” she said. 

“You have to work three times harder than what any normal person would, because you’ve disappointed those around you.

“The damage I made through substance abuse is not repairable, but now I can be there for the people who need me and who I love.

“That is so fulfilling...there is no other way for me anymore.”

On Friday, Ms Emms appeared in court to clear her final two charges of burglary with intent and breach of bail.

Ms Longden told the court Ms Emms “looked and seemed completely different”. 

Susan said she was “back to how she used to be”.