DV offender Peter Taylor tried to hide, but police were watching

Peter Taylor is no stranger to police.

The high-risk domestic violence offender with no fixed address was in hiding from a warrant for his arrest.

Peter Taylor is taken to a police van after being arrested in a Sydney CBD hotel.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

He had most recently breached a good behaviour bond and possessed an unauthorised pistol.

When police knocked on the door of his Sydney CBD hotel room on Friday morning, he appeared to be expecting them.

A calm, tired-looking Taylor sat up from his bed as he was handcuffed, asking to change his clothes before he was led down the stairs and into the police van.

The 48-year-old was among 551 offenders arrested between August 21-24 as part of NSW Police’s Operation Amarok VII, a statewide crackdown on high-risk domestic violence perpetrators.

Taylor was wanted by police over a breach of a community corrections order.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The Herald joined police on the quarterly blitz as the August mission marked an expansion of Amarok from operational to prevention efforts.

As well as the hundreds of arrests, police gave presentations on respectful relationships and coercive control to more than 10,000 students from more than 120 schools.

Just last week, Australia’s domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin said domestic violence perpetrators should be tracked with the same forensic and urgent attention as suspected terrorists.

One woman is killed every 11 days by an intimate partner, according to Australian government data.

Riot squad police prepare to undertake a search warrant under Operation Amarok.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Amarok uses an intelligence-based approach and involves each police area command paired with unique criminal profiling.

Detective Sergeant Adam Townsend, central metropolitan region team leader of the Domestic Violence High-Risk Offender team, said his team targeted “the worst of the worst”.

“They’re usually offenders that are wanted by the police area commands, but they can’t find them, so they send us a job to try and locate them. Most of them are known to police, they’ve got prior convictions and the reason they can’t be found is because they’re good at hiding”.

While Amarok is a special four-day operation, tracking down dangerous offenders is business as usual for Townsend and his team.

Hundreds of domestic violence offenders were arrested in the four-day raids.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

They had carefully curated a plan to arrest Taylor, whose criminal history includes domestic violence, weapons and drug offences.

On Friday, he faced court over the breach of his community correction order and possessing an unauthorised pistol and was re-sentenced to a community correction order for 18 months.

While Taylor was co-operative with police, Townsend said many others were not.

“There are cases where offenders don’t want to go willingly, and as a result, they resist police, they assault police,” he said.

Police found knuckle dusters at the home of 22-year-old Jyah James Divall.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Even without warrants for someone’s arrest, police have other tools to keep an eye on serious offenders.

This was the case with Jyah James Divall, who was released from jail on parole in January after serving 10 months for a string of vicious domestic violence offence assaults.

After yelling “Police, open the door. Force will be used,” officers smashed down the 22-year-old’s door on Friday to ensure he was complying with a firearms prohibition order, which bans him from acquiring, possessing or using a firearm, firearm parts or ammunition.

A search of the property uncovered illegal knuckle dusters. Police sent them off for DNA testing to help determine their owner and Divall, who was not home during the search, has not been charged over the weapon.

Police prepare to make their move on a violent DV perpertrator.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

While the operational aspect of Amarok was crucial, NSW Police Executive Sponsor for Domestic and Family Violence and Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell said educating the next generation was just as important.

“While the operational results under Operation Amarok are crucial to our fight against domestic and family violence, so too is preventing the problem in the first place,” Thurtell said.

“This Operation Amarok we had a focus on getting into schools and in front of students to educate them about the various issues that lead to people becoming domestic offenders.

“Kids are our future and teaching them about domestic violence early gives them the power to break the cycle.”

NSW Police visited more than 100 schools under Operation Amarok to teach students about coercive control.Credit: NSW Police

Amarok is led by the Domestic and Family Violence Registry but involves officers from each regions’ Domestic Violence High-Risk Offenders Team, along with specialist officers from Raptor Squad, Youth Command, Traffic and Highway Patrol Command and the Police Transport Command.

The educational aspect of Amarok focused on educating students on coercive control, which became illegal in NSW in July.

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