Coroner recommends separate crime of strangulation be introduced following murder of Jodi Eaton

A coroner has published her findings into the death of Sorell woman Jodi Eaton, who was strangled to death in 2014.

A memorial for Jodi Eaton in the days after her death.

STRANGULATION should be a separate crime in Tasmania, and dealt with by the Supreme Court, a coroner has recommended.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart on Monday published her findings into the death of Sorell mother-of-two Jodi Eaton, 28, who was murdered by Darren Michael Dobson on February 1, 2014.

Dobson was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, which he pleaded guilty to in May 2015.

Murdered mother-of-two Jodi Eaton.

The Supreme Court in Hobart heard Dobson strangled Ms Eaton at the Bridgewater home of a mutual friend, hid her body under the house then buried it in a shallow grave at Pelham, northwest of Brighton, where it was found on February 22, 2014.

Chief Justice Alan Blow, when he sentenced Dobson in September 2015, said Dobson had a “tendency to commit serious crimes of ­violence against women”.

Ms McTaggart said the investigation into Ms Eaton’s death “raises issues associated with non-fatal strangulation as a risk factor for subsequent homicide”.

“There is increasing awareness that non-fatal strangulation, particularly in the domestic violence context, is associated with future serious abuse and fatality and that increased awareness and targeted responses to the issue are necessary from the medical, policing, counselling and law reform sectors,” she said.

“Ms Eaton was not, and never had been, in a domestic relationship with Mr Dobson. However, the means by which he killed Ms Eaton was characteristic of the means of violence employed by him to assault other women, both partners and non-partners.”

Coroner Olivia McTaggart.

Ms McTaggart said NSW, ACT, SA and Queensland had enacted the crime of choking, suffocation and strangulation as a separate offence punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of between five and 10 years, and a similar offence was being considered in WA.

She said Tasmania should consider enacting such an offence, that would be indictable and therefore dealt with by the Supreme Court.

Ms McTaggart said the offence should be applicable to both domestic violence situations and more generally.

“In Tasmania, the indictable offence currently provided by section 168 of the Criminal Code Act 1924 requires proof that the choking, suffocation or strangulation is done with intent to facilitate the commission of an offence or facilitate the flight of an offender after the commission or attempted commission of an offence,” she said.

“As such, it is likely to be inapplicable to the commission of non-fatal strangulation in a variety of situations, including many in the domestic violence setting.”

Attorney-General Elise Archer on Monday said the Government was “committed to strengthening legal responses to family and sexual violence” and would consider the Coroner’s recommendation.

Following Ms Eaton’s murder, the Director of Public Prosecutions amended guidelines to ensure cases involving choking, smothering or any other form of strangulation, particularly in a family violence context, were charged under the Criminal Code and punishable by up to 21 years in jail.