First person convicted under new South Australian strangulation laws

A 43-year-old Adelaide man has become the first person to be sentenced under new laws imposing higher penalties for strangling their partner.

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The first person to be sentenced under new laws imposing higher penalties for strangling a partner or family member will serve at least 16 months in jail.

Kristan Russell Bradley, 43, was on Wednesday sentenced in the District Court over an February 2019 incident, where he pinned his partner against a wall and strangled her.

He is the first person to be convicted under laws that took effect on January 31, making strangulation in a family violence context a stand-alone offence with a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

The brutal act is now recognised a major warning sign of escalating danger in abusive relationships.

Previously strangulation cases were charged as aggravated assault, which carries a lower maximum penalty, or attempted murder, which has historically been hard to prosecute.

In sentencing, Judge Barry Beazley said Bradley had a long history of offending against the woman and breaching conditions of court orders.

Judge Beazley said that, during the February 11 incident, Bradley was “not able to control your anger over a trivial matter” after his partner had left his mobile phone in town.

“You ran towards her, grabbing her and squeezing her upper arm. You then pinned her against the wall, placed your hand around her throat, squeezing it such that she said she couldn’t move or breathe for about a minute,” he said.

At the time there was an intervention order in place that allowed the pair to live together but was meant to prevent Bradley from assaulting or harassing his partner, with whom he had been in a relationship for almost 10 years.

She did not make a victim impact statement to the court.

Judge Beazley initially imposed a head sentence of three years and six months, which was reduced to two years, five months and 12 days because Bradley pleaded guilty.

He added a further six weeks for a previous breach of a good behaviour bond and set the non-parole period at 16 months.

“While your offending is serious it is not of the most serious type which would, one might think, involve offending for a long duration to a loss of consciousness and be accompanied by other physical assaults,” Judge Beazley said.

However, he also noted that the new law “stresses the point that even non-lethal strangulation is a top risk factor in such domestic relationships”.

“It recognises the inherent danger in choking in a domestic setting and pays special regard to prevalence of domestic and family violence,” he said.

Experts note that in many cases non-fatal strangulation is used by an abuser to scare or intimidate a victim into submission, rather than to kill them.

Even in cases where no physical damage appears to have been caused, strangulation can lead to internal injuries, brain damage, memory loss and anxiety.

In explaining his sentencing, Judge Beazley said Bradley had a “dreadful start to life” witnessing his father die by suicide at age nine.

“He’d been violent to your mother in the past,” he added.

Bradley, who has since been diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, began abusing alcohol and cannabis from age 14 and later amphetamines and morphine.

He was also convicted of assaulting and strangling a previous partner.

Bradley has an 11-year-old son with a former partner who he does not see regularly.

Domestic Violence Crisis Line: 1800 800 098.

Lifeline: 13 11 14.