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A series of “blood-curdling” screams sparked Russell Harrison to rush to his female neighbour’s aid one summer afternoon, 11 years ago.
As a veteran of the US Army including the elite Special Forces, Harrison says he is inclined, “to run towards trouble”.
However, on this day, that trouble resulted in him being attacked and then subjected to two years of police and coronial inquiries.
Harrison remembers crossing the road after hearing the screams and following a stranger whom he’d spotted darting behind the woman’s house in Cassia Grove, Frankston, in Melbourne’s south-east.
Peering into the laundry through a screen door, Harrison saw “a fairly decent-sized guy” holding his neighbour against the wall, “with his hands around her throat”.
“He saw me and took off running through the house and I yelled at my neighbour to go to my place,” Harrison recalls.
He took off after the startled intruder and they grappled and fell to the floor. The attacker, on top, started strangling him.
The veteran poked one of the attacker’s eyes with his thumb, which allowed Harrison to break free and put the man into a choke hold until he passed out.
The police came within minutes but the intruder, later identified as Adam Slomczewski, died from what a coroner found was “cardiac arrhythmia in the setting of struggle, neck compression and amphetamine use”.
State Coroner Sara Hinchey noted Slomczewski had a lengthy criminal history for robbery, burglary and theft, and a history of ice, speed and heroin use.
Harrison says Slomczewski was trying to kill him that day, and would have killed his neighbour if no one had intervened.
She suffered bruising to her head, a black eye and hand marks around her throat. The next day, she visited Harrison.
“She hugged me and started crying,” he says.
“She moved out. I haven’t seen her since,” he says. “I hope her and her kids have been able to move on and live the best life they can.”
It took almost two years for the state prosecutor and a coronial inquest to clear Harrison over Slomczewski’s death.
It would later be revealed that Slomczewski was a suspect in the murder of mum Traci O’Sullivan, 42, whose body was found in her Frankston North home in February 2015.
Slomczewski’s DNA was found at the scene, but a laboratory bungle rendered the evidence unreliable.
Finally, more than a decade after his heroic efforts, Harrison has been given the Commendation for Brave Conduct in the Governor-General’s Australian Bravery Decorations, announced on Tuesday.
Despite everything the case put him through, Harrison has no regrets about confronting Slomczewski.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he says.
The bravery award was a welcome surprise. “It means that with everything I went through, at least someone is saying, you’ve done the right thing,” Harrison says.
Among other awards, Chinges Tumurkhuyag, of Footscray West, has received a Bravery Medal after he climbed balconies to rescue a woman trying to jump from a high-rise hotel in Cairns, Queensland, in 2019.
Brianna Hurst has received a commendation for brave conduct, for rescuing three swimmers, one of whom died, at Marengo beach near Apollo Bay in 2024.
Barry Gobbe, then a paramedic, and Gary Raymond and the late Richard Lamb, both police officers, have been given a Group Bravery Citation for rescuing people in the Granville train disaster in Sydney in 1977.
Referring to all of the recipients, Governor-General Sam Mostyn says: “They were each confronted with danger and chose to act – removing others from dangerous circumstances, including beach and sea rescues, motor vehicle accidents and other treacherous and, often, unimaginable situations.
“To all the brave Australians we honour today, thank you for your selfless and determined courage and care for others.”
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