Legal crackdown puts domestic abusers behind bars for longer

Thousands of abusive partners have been charged and jail terms are growing, but there are still calls for domestic violence laws to be better reinforced.

Almost 1500 violent or abusive South Australians have been charged under tougher laws for breaching orders meant to protect their victims – and the courts are handing down longer jail terms.

Latest figures also reveal SA’s worst offenders are flouting orders up to 20 times a year by harassing, stalking or assaulting their victims.

The State Government doubled penalties for offenders who repeatedly or violently breach an intervention order – most commonly used to protect victims of family violence – in early 2019. They now face a maximum fine of $20,000 or four years in jail.

In the first 12 months, 1468 people were charged with flouting an intervention order and so far 65 have been jailed.

Labor’s domestic violence prevention spokeswoman Katrine said more needed to be done to deter repeat abusers. Picture: Emily Cosenza.

Data released by the Attorney-General’s department, following requests from the Sunday Mail, show the average sentence for offenders has since risen from 39 days behind bars to 49 days for those caught ignoring court orders two or more times, and 135 days for breaches involving a violent act, such as an assault on a partner or child or a threat of violence.

However, the Opposition argues the laws do not go far enough and has put new legislation to Parliament.

Labor’s spokeswoman for the prevention of domestic violence Katrine Hildyard wants to remove the option of a fine, saying they often go unpaid and were “simply not deterring some violent repeat offenders”.

Her Bill would also impose a top sentence of five years for a first breach of an order, or seven years if it involved an offence against a child, in a child’s presence or a threat to restrict access to a child.

Repeated breaches would attract a top sentence of 10 years, or 12 if involving a child.

Br­each­es of an order can include harassment by phone or text, stalking, showing up at a child’s school or partner’s workplace, damaging property or even strangling a former partner.

Women have been killed while supposedly protected by intervention orders, including Brisbane mother Hannah Baxter, last year, and Adelaide mother Zahra Abrahimzadeh, in 2010.

The Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network has found that a quarter of men who murder their partner are under domestic violence orders at the time. Figures released by SA Courts show more than 12 South Australians each day seek the protection of a court order because of domestic violence – but abusers are breaching the conditions almost six times every day.

In the worst cases, four people have been charged with between 11 and 20 breaches since mid-2019.

The data is not broken down by gender but SA Police analysis shows 96 per cent of high-risk domestic violence offenders in SA are male.

A State Government spokeswoman said it was “important there are tough measures in place that serve as a deterrent” to breaching orders and it would monitor how the current laws were applied in the courts.