Police asked to include domestic violence data in monthly crime reports to ‘shock’ public

ADVOCATES want police to include figures on domestic violence incidents in monthly crime reports published online in a bid to “shock” the public into acknowledging the extent of the epidemic.

Adeline Yvette Rigney-Wilson, Corey and Amber, Zahra Abrahimzadeh, Glenys Heyward, Graziella Daillér and Jackie Ohide.

• POLICE DATA: SA’s domestic violence toll revealed
• THE ADVOCATE: Why Arman Abrahimzadeh is driven by desire for change
• THE EYEWITNESS: Domestic violence is tearing families apart and we must speak out
• TRIPLE TRAGEDY: Grieving grandmother says Families SA should have intervened before Hillier murders
• SOCIAL WORKERS: Child protection authorities visited Hillier family hours before their deaths

ADVOCATES want police to include figures on domestic violence incidents in monthly crime reports published online in a bid to “shock” the public into acknowledging the extent of the epidemic.

It comes as the state Attorney-General condemned the Opposition as “rude, foolish and contemptuous” for calling on the Government to reveal more details about the involvement of Families SA with a mother and children who were killed this week.

SA Police revealed yesterday that seven men, women and children have been killed as a result of family violence since the middle of last year — in addition to the deaths of Adeline Yvette Rigney-Wilson, her daughter Amber, 6, and son Corey, 5, on Monday.

Ms Rigney-Wilson’s partner, Steven Graham Peet, has been charged with their murders.

Six domestic violence-related deaths were recorded in SA in 2014-15.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens revealed the figures yesterday morning under mounting public pressure, following an Advertiser report that SA Police was refusing to release data which it had supplied to Government ministers.

Centacare Catholic Family Services director Dale West said police should include domestic violence assaults and breaches of protection orders in crime statistics they already publish online monthly, such as for car thefts or graffiti.

The late Adeline Yvette Rigney-Wilson’s murdered children Corey and Amber. Source: Facebook

“Social change only happens when people have relevant information which shocks them,” Mr West said.

“This information would shock them. It’s essential that we get a better picture of this by knowing these statistics, and they (police) do keep those statistics, the just don’t give them out.”

State Coroner Mark Johns yesterday questioned why police were unable to say how many South Australians were dying as a result of domestic violence and warned that his office did not have the resources to collate the information in a timely manner.

A police spokeswoman yesterday said the Coroner was given a “brief description of the circumstances” of every death police attend, including “any known relationship between the offender and victim, including former domestic partnership, parent, child or partner”.

Attorney-General John Rau supported police releasing more data “as long as they have the IT systems that are capable of delivering that without inordinate difficulty”.

“What we need to be doing is to find some way of coding those (domestic violence assault) offences with a flag that indicates the perpetrator and the victim were in some sort of domestic context so that we get more accurate data,” he said.

Mr Rau said data provided by police would inform a discussion paper his office was preparing on policies to tackle domestic violence. However, he would not release details yesterday.

Mr Rau also launched a scathing attack on Opposition child protection spokeswoman Rachel Sanderson, who has called for the Government to reveal details about many child protection notifications were made to Families SA about Ms Rigney-Wilson’s children and whether any drug assessments were conducted.

Asked to respond, Mr Rau described Ms Sanderson’s call as “rude, foolish and contemptuous of a police investigation”.

“It’s an easy free kick, a moment to draw attention to herself at the expense of treating what has been a horrible triple homicide with appropriate respect and dignity,” he said.

Mr Rau warned people against “pointing their fingers at different people in the community and in government agencies when they ... do not know what has happened”.

“Some of those who find it so easy to raise criticisms about the performance of (Families SA workers) ... should be a little more careful about mouthing off before they know what the facts are.”

Ms Sanderson agreed that judgment should be reserved “until the full circumstances ... have become clear” but said it was “critical that the facts regarding the actions of Families SA in this tragedy are understood sooner rather than later”.