Leanne fled the country to escape domestic abuse. Now she could face jail

Leanne* fled Australia with her two young children as she says it was the only way she knew how to protect herself from her violent husband.

But under international law, she could be forced to return from the US due to the child custody rights of the children’s father, who has five convictions against him – three of domestic violence-related common assault, one of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and one of breaching an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO).

Leanne fled to the US with her children to escape domestic violence.Credit: Darcy Hemley-Casucci

And she could then find herself facing up to three years in jail if she is charged with child abduction upon her return.

Leanne’s former partner is attempting to have a US court order her to bring the children back to Australia using The Hague Convention, an international treaty drafted more than 40 years ago to address fathers taking their children abroad. Experts say it is not fit for purpose for domestic violence cases.

The death of NSW woman Molly Ticehurst, who was allegedly murdered by her ex-partner last month, has galvanised a national movement against domestic violence, described by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “national crisis” in the wake of the tragedy.

Leanne is a lawyer but now finds herself powerless in the face of the legal system. She worries if she is forced to return to Australia, her husband will kill her. She has spoken out to highlight where the system was letting down women in her situation and be a voice for other victim-survivors.

This masthead has kept Leanne’s identity anonymous due to restrictions on reporting on child custody matters.

“The international system is dirty. I am not the first mum or lady or granny to try to fight this. We need someone to stand up and say enough is enough … It’s devastating for kids to go through these systems,” she said.

She said she fled Sydney at the end of March 2023 with the children after two years of escalating financial, emotional and physical abuse.

Her husband choked her just days after she had given birth to their youngest child and again two weeks later. This time, the police were called, and her husband was arrested and charged on the morning of May 8, 2022 but was soon released on bail.

As the pair lived apart, Leanne said she remained in the family home while she was waiting for emergency housing and sought domestic violence counselling. Her husband had supervised visits.

Her husband still had access to her residence as police had not taken his keys from him, and she could not change the locks as the lease was in his name.

It took almost a year until the court held the first trial date in March 2023. During this time, her husband was also charged with breaching an ADVO, and using a carriage service to menace, harass or threaten after calling Leanne 63 times in 12 hours.

It took another eight months to convict him. Her husband was found guilty of three counts of assault, along with the above two charges. There was no prison sentence. The magistrate fined him $2400 and made a community correction order. The court extended the ADVO for a further 12 months, preventing her husband from contacting, approaching or going within 500 metres of Leanne.

During the court process, Leanne begged the police for support in an email.

“I find myself switching off baby monitors in case he has tapped into them and then lying awake at night wondering if he’d come [in the] early hours of the morning … Do I do a self-defence course? Do I get another lock installed?” she wrote in an email to police.

By the time police responded to her emailed concerns with a new provisional ADVO in March last year, the trial was already over and Leanne had left. Fearing for her safety, she bought herself and the children tickets to California, where her father and several family friends live. She only told her parents about her departure.

“I did not act as a lawyer when I fled. I acted as a mother,” she said.

Leanne assumed her husband’s convictions would stop him from securing a visa to the US, and the trio lived for a year in California before her husband arrived there last month.

Leanne said he began following her and the children around, appearing at the window of her father’s house. She was granted a temporary restraining order against him, although he still has supervised visitation.

On March 20, her husband applied to the California District Attorney to have the children returned to Australia under The Hague Convention. He claims Leanne is mentally unwell.

If Leanne is forced to return the children to Australia, she said she will follow – but returns to no money, home, or job.

Her hard-earned career as a family lawyer is in jeopardy if her husband presses criminal charges against her. But her more urgent fear is that her husband will kill her.

“I’m petrified but there’s only so much I can do to protect myself. A taser. A camera. A lock on the door. Once I’m on Australian soil again, he will come and he will try to kill me,” she said.

“The rights of parents literally trump attempted murder in Australia.”

She’s also in financial hardship as the court proceedings are overseas, rendering her ineligible for legal aid she may have qualified for if the case was being heard in Australia. While the government pledged equal access to legal support in the last federal budget, it’s yet to be made available.

Leanne does not want to return to Australia and believes her matter should be able to be heard either virtually with the Australian family law court provisions or be thrown out by the US court.

“[The courts] need to do background checks on … whoever is trying to get a child back and ask, why has this person run? I did not do it for fun,” she said.

“Why are we allowed to cover for violent people? He’s enabled by the system.”

If her case returns to the Family Court in Australia, Leanne will have her custody case heard under new laws aimed to have the courts consider the best interests of the child, after the federal parliament passed the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 last October.

The changes legislated in the bill, which came into effect this week, mean judges can consider a history of domestic violence in determining custody matters. The changes also apply to Hague Convention cases heard in Australia.

It also scraps the “equal shared responsibility” assumption introduced in 2006 by the Howard government to address a historical bias against fathers’ custody.

Women’s Legal Services Australia executive office Lara Freidin welcomed the changes as they focused on child safety but said the bill’s implementation must be monitored.

“We’ve been working closely with the chief justice of the Family Court to see what kind of training is needed to ensure judges have a gender lens, are trauma-informed and understanding of family violence,” she said.

“Family violence doesn’t stop on separation and coercive and controlling behaviours continue and escalate while people are engaged in legal progress and beyond.”

Queensland lawyer and QUT postdoctoral research fellow Gina Masterton warned the wording of the new legislation made it optional for judges to examine domestic violence, which had historically been downplayed or dismissed in Hague Convention cases.

She said a bigger question was why men with a history of documented violence were even allowed to apply for return orders in the first place.

“When an abused mother offers evidence of the DV she has endured and also the steps she took in the other jurisdiction for protection which failed her … then no return order should be made,” she said.

Since July last year, there have been 22 applications to return children from Australia to another country, and a further 46 applications to return children to Australia. The Attorney-General’s Department couldn’t provide details on the number of cases which had allegations of domestic violence.

*Name has been changed

If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au), the National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service on 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.