By DANI ROTHWELL
FOUNTAIN Gate stabbing victim Monica Hawkins wants young people to never let their guards down.
“Don’t be so trusting and just because someone smiles at you, doesn’t mean they’re your friend,” she said.
“Your guard comes down even when you don’t think it is.”
Last month’s Fountain Gate attack left her fighting for her life.
The Pakenham teenager has spoken about her fear as she felt her life ebbing away during the emergency air-lift to hospital.
“When I didn’t know if I was going to make it, that was the scary part,” she said.
“None of my family was there and I had things I needed to say to them.”
Monica’s mother Tracy remembers reading about the stabbing on Facebook before she knew it was Monica.
“I was about to tell my partner because I thought it was pretty close to home – and I didn’t even get to the door before the Narre Warren Police knocked,” she said.
“They told me I had to go straight to The Alfred and eight hours later they told me she’d made it through surgery.”
Now back home but not yet fully recovered, Monica feels mostly unchanged, other than having a bit more of a safety focus on her mind.
“I’m still alive and I’m happy to be alive, so I’m going to live and not dwell on this small thing that’s happened,” she said.
Within a week of the stabbing, Casey Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) detectives charged a 16-year-old Narre Warren girl with attempted murder and intentionally causing serious injury.
Read the full interview with Monica and her mother’s first person account of the incident in the 8 July edition of the Gazette.
