Legal Aid Domestic Violence Unit lifts lid on fight against digital abuse

Kids sent to mum’s house with spyware in their teddy bears, and surveillance cameras inside homes have become the inescapable reality for victims of domestic violence.

Manager of Allied Services Amanda Gale holds a ‘safe phone’ given to clients. Picture: Richard Dobson

Kids sent to mum’s house with spyware in their teddy bears and phones are the shocking stories emerging from the in-demand call lines and courtrooms of the state’s biggest domestic violence legal service.

The rapid rise of technology has fuelled a new wave of violence, staff say, giving perpetrators a way to track, intimidate and abuse their victims at all hours of the day, from any location.

Demand for the Legal Aid Domestic Violence Unit is at a record high, with almost 8000 women reaching out for help in the last financial year – a 700 per cent increase since the unit opened 10 years ago.

But Domestic and Family Violence director Anna Baltins said the rise in digital abuse had been the most alarming change in the past decade, with perpetrators turning to phone tracking apps, toll accounts and doorbell cameras to keep their victims living in fear.

Children are also unknowingly being used to track and monitor their parent.

“Spyware apps on phones, GPS trackers in cars, we see really severe cases where there are cameras put in houses … and it’s really frightening for people, because sometimes they don’t know if they’re imagining it. That’s part of the (tactic) the perpetrator is using against them,” Ms Baltins said.

“They’re also using children, giving a child a mobile phone and sending it to mum’s house, asking to do video calls and be shown around the house when they don’t know where mum lives … in an attempt to locate mum and listen in on conversations.

Director Anna Baltins said demand for Legal Aid’s Domestic Violent Unit has never been higher. Picture: Richard Dobson

“We’ve seen examples where tracking devices have been put in a teddy bear and sent with the child to mum’s house so they can track people remotely as well.”

The Sunday Telegraph was invited to go behind-the-scenes this week with Ms Baltins and her team of solicitors, mental health workers and financial counsellors at their Sydney headquarters, where staff turn up every morning to a waitlist of unpredictable calls.

Rada* contacted the unit after her partner Jon* installed security cameras inside their house and started to monitor her transport card statements to track her movements.

He threatened to harm her family overseas if she spoke to anyone about the abuse, before she sought out Legal Aid.

Rada’s story is the tip of the iceberg, with new data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showing 60 per cent of coercive control incidents involved monitoring and tracking since new laws passed last July.

Legal Aid Domestic Violence Unit’s Amanda Gale, Manager of Allied Services; Anika Huda, Solicitor; Anna Baltins, Director of the Domestic Violence Unit and Katie Kelso, Director of Family Law. Picture: Richard Dobson

Allied Professional Services team leader Amanda Gale oversees the “safe phones” offered to victims so they can contact family, friends and services without being tracked.

The changing pace of technology has made it hard to stay one step ahead of perpetrators, with many using “(devices) we don’t necessarily know about”.

But the tide is finally changing.

“Society is much more aware of (domestic violence) now … and it’s less about asking women ‘why didn’t you leave’ or blaming them for being victims,” Ms Gale said. 

Originally published as Legal Aid Domestic Violence Unit lifts lid on fight against digital abuse