Domestic violence Qld: Stalking laws set to be strengthened

A law that isn’t “used at all very often” in domestic violence cases is set to be strengthened when it comes before State Cabinet.

Those who follow former partners, track their phones or monitor their text messages will be charged under stronger stalking laws set to come before State Cabinet.

And offenders will face a harsher jail term if they stalk a partner or ex-partner, rather than anyone else.

Details of the modernised charge came as Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman told The Sunday Mail she thought more people should be charged with stalking to keep victims safer.

Her comments follow the coronial inquest of Hannah Clarke and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, which included submissions that police could have considered charging Rowan Baxter with stalking or rape before he went on to murder his family in February 2020.

“I actually don’t think stalking as an offence is used at all very often in domestic violence settings – and why is that?” Ms Fentiman said, as she flagged research showing almost a quarter of young men believe women find it flattering to be persistently pursued, even if they are not interested.

An updated stalking offence – with a longer seven-year maximum jail term and a five-year restraining order if the victim and perpetrator had a “relevant relationship” – and a new criminal charge of coercive control, carrying a 14-year jail term, were both recommended by Justice Margaret McMurdo’s Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

Other recommendations include that magistrates be provided a criminal history in all DVO applications, orders may be served electronically in some cases and that courts award costs against perpetrators who take cross-orders out on victims to harass them.

Hannah Baxter with children Trey, Laianah and Aaliyah

The State Government is expected to deliver its official response shortly, after Cabinet considers all 89 of the taskforce’s recommendations.

However the Government already has vowed to criminalise coercive control and Ms Fentiman said some legislative changes would happen within the next “few months”.

She said many laws needed modernising, and stronger laws that led to successful prosecutions could encourage police to lay charges.

“We know now perpetrators are so sophisticated with the technology they use so I’m looking at our laws to make sure they’re up to date with what’s actually happening in the community,” Ms Fentiman said.

“And how perpetrators are using technology-facilitated abuse to stalk and track women is something that the task force recommended we do quite urgently.”

Ms Fentiman confirmed that Baxter’s behaviour would have been captured under the state’s planned coercive control offence, expected to come into effect in 2024, as she credited Hannah’s parents Sue and Lloyd Clarke for helping to bring focus to the issue.

“I think the criminal offence will be really important in holding perpetrators to account and that criminal offence will include using invasive surveillance, controlling women’s access to money, controlling where she goes, all of those controlling behaviours,” Ms Fentiman said.

In the meantime, first-responder training will be improved and an advertising campaign will roll out educating the community on the problem behaviour, she said.