‘Silent, hidden and deathly pandemic’: Coercive control should be made a crime, inquiry finds

If coercive control had been illegal two years ago, Nithya Reddy believes her sister would still be alive.

Leading up to Sydney dentist Preethie Reddy’s murder, her ex-boyfriend Dr Harshwardhan Narde messaged her constantly and tried to blame her for ending their relationship. Hours after the pair attended a dental conference in 2019, he murdered the 32-year-old and took his own life days later.

Preethi Reddy’s sister Nithya says if coercive control had been illegal her sister likely would still be alive.Credit: Wolter Peeters

“I really do believe my sister would still be here if we had this law,” Dr Reddy said.

“So many women and children have died since my sister was killed and many of those women didn’t recognise [coecieve control] is abuse and society similarly has not recognised that. There are so many checks and balances we can put in, but at the moment that hasn’t been afforded to these women and children.”

She said her drive to criminalise coercive control was to ensure her family’s experience was not repeated.

Criminalising coercive control is one of the key recommendations to emerge following an eight-month NSW parliamentary inquiry that was tabled on Wednesday.

The behaviour is a form of domestic abuse in which the perpetrator asserts dominance and control over someone through repeated patterns of abusive behaviour. This can include monitoring or surveilling their communication, preventing them from seeing family and friends, and intimidating them.

Dr Reddy welcomed the thorough inquiry and the hard work of advocates and experts involved, but she warned that implementing the recommendations would require a mammoth effort from the ground up, input from experts and victim-survivors and adequate funding.

Among the other 22 recommendations from the Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control is that the government should increase the maximum penalty for contravening an apprehended violence order; run awareness campaigns for diverse communities; and improve resources for women’s domestic violence court advocacy services, including in rural and regional areas.

“It is no exaggeration, [coercive control] is a silent, hidden and deathly pandemic. Like a canary in a coal mine, the statistics are our warning that we have an opportunity to act,” the report notes.

Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia chief executive officer Hayley Foster welcomed the recommendations but said it would be important to see how the NSW government responded.

“This is a real opportunity for the government to make meaningful, generational change,” she said. “They should take this with both hands and run with it.”

“I think at this point we are really at a point in time in our nation’s history in that there is multi-party support and the community is right behind this and want to see action. We have to take these moments to make real change, because how often in our nation’s history have we had everyone on the same page to address this crisis once and for all?”

The inquiry heard evidence from more than 100 witnesses across the state and received more than 150 submissions.

“We heard evidence of terror, murder, and heartbreak, and of bare survival in the lives of women and children. It became apparent that we have an obligation to do more to address a very obvious gap in current laws,” Committee chair and Liberal MP Natalie Ward said.

In one case, a woman said her partner woke her up several times in the middle of the night by pushing her out of bed, pulling her hair or pouring freezing water on her. She felt constantly exhausted, lost her job and stopped seeing family and friends.

The Domestic Violence Death Review Team found 111 of 112 instances of intimate partner homicides between 2008 and 2016 in NSW were preceded by coercive control.

“Given the facts, we cannot ignore this phenomenon,” Ms Ward said.

However, the 191-page report notes that criminalising coercive control should not occur without a “prior program of education, training and consultation with police, stakeholders and the frontline sector”.

NSW Attorney-General and Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence Mark Speakman said the inquiry illustrated the need to continue improving how the justice system responded to domestic and family violence.

“The NSW government will consider the findings and recommendations of this substantial body of work, with the care and diligence it deserves,” he said.

“I said at the outset that any legislative reform must be approached with great care and caution, because there are no easy answers. Any response must ensure it does not have the unintended consequence of further hurting those in our community we are seeking to help.”

The domestic violence sector has strongly supported the report.

“It’s important to criminalise coercive and controlling behaviours so we can reshape the Australian public’s understanding of what constitutes a health and unhealthy relationship and move towards a collective understanding that domestic abuse is not always an incident of physical violence,” Executive director of White Ribbon Australia Brad Chilcott said

Domestic Violence NSW chief executive officer Delia Donovan said she was pleased to see the report prioritising changes to the civil law offering improved protection to survivors.

“Coercive control is one of the most insidious forms of domestic and family violence,“she said. “For DVNSW, the issue was never whether to criminalise coercive control, but how and where to criminalise it in the eyes of the law.”

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. Support is also available at Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

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