Royal Commission leader meets male prisoners in a bid to learn how to stop domestic violence

Male prisoners are telling the state’s Royal Commission into domestic violence chief they want to stop being part of the problem.

Natasha Stott Despoja AO is leading the South Australian Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.

Men at Adelaide Remand Centre have told South Australia’s Royal Commission domestic violence chief they want to change from being perpetrators.

Natasha Stott Despoja, who is leading the state’s Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, met the male members of a program aiming to stop the domestic violence cycle.

“One hundred per cent of the men I talked to in a small group had grown up with or experienced family violence, they were all victims of violence that was intergenerational including their grandparents,” Ms Stott Despoja said.

“Taking it on face value, these men indicated they want to change, they felt they had changed (through the program) but they said there needs to be more programs for men to understand what is moral behaviour not only criminally but also ethically.

“There were various forms of remorse and understanding of the violence, I found it incredibly candid and moving, and that is not in any way excusing the behaviour.”

Natasha Stott Despoja is three months in to leading the South Australian Royal, Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. Picture: Talara McHugh

The stories are among hundreds heard by Commissioner Stott Despoja in the first three months of the year-long inquiry, announced in December last year after the deaths of six South Australian women from alleged family and domestic violence.

In her first update, Ms Stott Despoja said she also intended visiting the state’s women’s prison, recognising that while the vast majority of perpetrators were men, there were also some women.

One worrying gap in support that has emerged is around children.

Ms Stott Despoja intends making the commission one of the first to ensure they have a voice in recommendations to be handed to the State Government in July next year.

“Children and young people, they have just not been given a voice,” she said.

There have been shocking revelations from victims, families whose loved ones have been killed, support workers and perpetrators during Ms Stott Despoja’s meetings in Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Kangaroo Island.

A new type of statewide commission consultation starts next week when the Share With Us online survey opens online giving all South Australians the opportunity to give insights anonymously.

“I have heard many moving stories … it’s quite hard to describe some of them and that includes with men who have despaired at their own actions and brave women who have withstood awful, awful violence, and people who have lost loved ones due to this scourge.”