One ridealong with police revealed the true depths of Victoria’s family violence epidemic

In Victoria, on average, there is a family violence incident recorded every six minutes. These are our state’s horror stories from just one night with police.

Police officer Thevini Kirupakaran regularly responds to family violence callouts in the Dandenong area. Picture: Jason Edwards

The heavily pregnant woman trembled with fear as she opened the door to police.

She had been assaulted by her abusive partner in public and fled home to Hallam for safety.

She dialled triple-0 for help, but when police arrived at 3.40am she was frozen with fear.

“She was extremely scared. Her body language showed us she was terrified of her partner and telling us something that would get him in trouble,” said Constable Thevini Kirupakaran, who attended the call-out.

“She wanted to protect him – she was pregnant with his child. He had done horrible things but she didn’t want to disclose anything.”

Like so many victims of domestic abuse, the woman did not want to make an official statement. But police couldn’t ignore what they had seen or heard.

“She had disclosed that he had become more and more angry and erratic the further she got into her pregnancy. This is a big risk factor and sign of him feeling jealous because he’s not getting enough attention,” Constable Kirupakaran said.

“She said he would also go after her loved ones and threaten to damage her mother’s property. It was all part of his controlling, coercive behaviour which made her feel she needed to back down.”

For Kirupakaran and partner Leah Carpenter most of their shift overnight is spent responding to reports of abuse in family homes. Picture: Jason Edwards

As the woman confided in police, a separate unit was busy tracking down her abuser.

As is common in family violence cases, the man tried to feed police lies about the assault – but they saw right through it.

“I spoke to him on the phone and he denied all allegations put to him. He denied the assault and tried to frame her as being crazy,” Constable Kirupakaran said.

Police arrested the man and applied for intervention orders to protect the woman and her unborn baby. Sadly, it wasn’t their first intervention order.

“There was an extensive family violence history between the parties. It really shows that family violence happens in a cycle and that people get trapped,” Constable Kirupakaran said.

Constable Kirupakaran said watching the cycle of violence continue to repeat itself can be frustrating, but what really angers her is the manipulative tactics used by offenders to conceal their crimes and place blame on victims.

“It would be the most terrifying thing for a victim to call police and have us not believe them. I never want people to feel like that,” she said.

In the southern metro division covering the Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia area, family violence accounts for the vast majority of police workload.

“I think 70 per cent of the jobs relate to family violence. It’s extremely busy,” Constable Kirupakaran said.

However similar situations play out every day and night across Australia.

In Victoria, there are 253 family violence incidents recorded each day on average — one every six minutes.

On this Saturday in May, there were 32 family violence call-outs in the southern metro district alone.

*Berwick, 5pm: Police attend a local hospital after staff reported a verbal argument between a patient and her male intimate partner. Police apply for an intervention order to protect the victim and her children, including newborn baby, after witnessing the perpetrators’ aggressive and unpredictable behaviour.

*Officer, 9pm: Police attend a home following reports of a verbal argument which resulted in the woman being assaulted by her male partner. The victim refuses to make a statement. Police issue a family violence safety notice with unlawful assault charges pending. Police seize the perpetrators’ firearms and issue a notice of suspension.

*Cranbourne, 4.45am: Police attend a home after reports of a verbal argument between a man and woman who recently separated. The man is alcohol affected and police are concerned for the welfare of the woman and her son due to his escalating behaviour. Police apply for an intervention order.

In Victoria, on average there is an incident of family violence reported every six minutes.. Picture: Jason Edwards

On this night in this police district alone, 11 intervention orders were applied for and eight family violence safety notices issued by police. Multiple breaches of existing intervention orders were also recorded.

Intervention order breaches occur at a staggering rate in domestic abuse cases.

Last year alone Victoria Police recorded a total of 55,128 family violence related order breaches – a crime that has preceded some of the state’s worst intimate partner homicides.

Constable Kirupakaran said this is why she regularly pushes for victims to consider crisis accommodation.

“At the end of the day, an intervention order is just a piece of paper. We want to make sure people are safe and protected,” she said.

Dangers posed inside the home became more real than ever as households across the state were repeatedly plunged into lockdown in the past year.

The restrictions placed relationships under immeasurable financial stress and uncertainty and enabled perpetrators to exercise complete control over victims, including who they spoke to and where they went.

Constable Kirupakaran said some felt isolated and unable to get help.

“When people are stuck at home with no escape, things can boil over and there can be more violence, more emotional abuse. They are trapped and feel they can’t call anyone,” she said.

Children are so often the silent victims of abusive and dysfunctional relationships.

On the same night police responded to the pregnant woman in Hallam, another unit was called to Berwick.

A perpetrator with an active intervention order in place managed to track down his former partner at her friend’s home.

It was 8.30pm and the intoxicated dad refused to leave without seeing his child.

The victim relented, allowing her abuser to briefly hold the child before police arrived and charged him with breaching the intervention order.

Three hours earlier in Springvale, a woman sought help from police after being abused and degraded by her drunk husband in front of their children.

A similar scenario played out in Cranbourne at 4.45am when a drunk perpetrator tried to get inside the home of a female victim and child.

Constable Kirupakaran said cases involving children are the hardest to attend.

“As police, we often see children who experience family violence at a young age become victims or perpetrators when they get older. It’s extremely frustrating as a copper because you think what chance has this kid got,” Constable Kirupakaran said.

A distressed emergency call was made from a home in Pakenham at 6pm that night.

On the line were the parents of a teenage boy whom had been exhibiting “deteriorating behaviour” toward his mother.

By the time police arrived, they had to physically separate the fighting parties.

Constable Kirupakaran said “It’s very confronting when children are the perpetrators of family violence.”