Court systems struggling with growing number of domestic violence cases in Macarthur
DOMESTIC violence victims in Sydney’s fastest-growing region are waiting almost twice as long for justice as those in the city due to a lack of courts.
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DOMESTIC violence victims in Sydney’s fastest-growing region are waiting almost twice as long for justice as those in the city due to a lack of courts.
Despite the exploding population of the Macarthur region, its two main courthouses at Camden and Picton date back 160 years to the days of the bushrangers.
The region’s third courthouse, at Campbelltown, is understaffed, with three magistrates instead of four.
Furious lawyers are now pushing for a new courts complex on the city’s booming southwestern fringe with local courts, a federal court, children’s court and other services in the one building.
“People in the regions deserve the same facilities as the city,” NSW Law Society president Doug Humphreys said.
“A complex needs to be built big and built for the future.”
Mr Humphreys said the situation was urgent. Camden courthouse, built in 1857, was “an incident waiting to happen” with no security and a single courtroom opening directly off the street, he said.
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Domestic violence lists at the court have blown out from an average 17 cases a day to more than 70 a day in four years, with victims waiting five months or more for a contested domestic violence or apprehended violence order hearing.
At the city’s Downing Centre, where there are 15 local courts, the waiting time is three months.
Camden now sits just two days a month to deal with domestic violence cases and is always packed.
In the chaos when The Daily Telegraph visited, the sole sheriff’s officer dropped his baton. It was picked up by a defendant, who handed it back.
Picton courthouse, built in 1865, sits nine days a month — often until 6pm, and even then not always getting through the cases listed. It is usual for families to travel for hours to attend courts outside the area, including the family courts in Wollongong and Parramatta or into Sydney CBD for criminal trials.
One local businesswoman, whose two daughters were raped by a paedophile, said she clocked up the equivalent of 30 weeks in travel and court time before the pervert was jailed for 32 years last year in Sydney’s District Court.
The population of the Macarthur region is expected to double to 600,000 in the next 20 years with a series of housing developments underway.
More people have brought more crime. Domestic violence incidents in the region have soared by 37.2 per cent a year over the past two years, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Mark Speakman yesterday said the government was reviewing court capacity across the state.