Crime by Elise Williams
Premium Content Domestic violence abusers are breaching court issued orders put in place to protect victims at an alarming rate, with new data revealing an increase of nearly 200 per cent in domestic violence order (DVO) breaches in under a decade. Newly released crime statistics by the State Government show the state s continuing struggle to grapple with the complexities of domestic violence, as DVO breaches have risen at a rate of 187.9 per cent from 2011 to 2020, while breaches of domestic violence orders have increased by 18 per cent in the last 12-month period. In the wake of a horror 14 months of DV deaths in Queensland, including the tragic losses of Hannah Clarke, Doreen Langham and Kelly Wilkinson - all women with DVOs against their former partners - leading criminal law experts have called for changes to DVOs.
Domestic violence abusers are breaching court issued orders put in place to protect victims at an alarming rate, with new data revealing an increase of nearly 200 per cent in domestic violence order (DVO) breaches in under a decade. Newly released crime statistics by the State Government show the state s continuing struggle to grapple with the complexities of domestic violence, as DVO breaches have risen at a rate of 187.9 per cent from 2011 to 2020, while breaches of domestic violence orders have increased by 18 per cent in the last 12-month period. In the wake of a horror 14 months of DV deaths in Queensland, including the tragic losses of Hannah Clarke, Doreen Langham and Kelly Wilkinson - all women with DVOs against their former partners - leading criminal law experts have called for changes to DVOs.
Last modified on Mon 26 Apr 2021 14.18 EDT
The Queensland police service employs fewer than 90 officers as specialists in domestic and family violence, despite case numbers rising to more than 100,000 a year across the state.
As the QPS attempts to understand its own “failures” to protect murdered Gold Coast mother Kelly Wilkinson, support services and victims’ advocates have spoken out about the chronic under-resourcing of programs designed to intervene to prevent harm to women.
One of those programs involves integrated “high-risk” teams, largely led by non-government organisations, scattered across the state. The role of these teams is to identify cases where domestic abuse victims may be in imminent or serious danger.
Last modified on Fri 23 Apr 2021 16.03 EDT
In the days since Kelly Wilkinson was doused in petrol and burned in her Gold Coast back yard, her killing has been repeatedly framed as a sort of unforeseeable or âunfathomableâ tragedy.
âNo one expected this to happen,â lawyer Chris Hannay, who has been representing her estranged husband, told reporters this week.
As detail now emerges about the events leading up to Wilkinsonâs death, frontline workers and criminologists say there is actually a gut-wrenching familiarity to the trajectory of her final weeks and months, as she attempted to flee from domestic abuse.
Wilkinsonâs family revealed to the Gold Coast Bulletin she had sought the help of police âalmost every dayâ since first making a domestic violence complaint in late March.
We have to respond in the same way we would respond to a terrorist and that s the same way we have to view these very dangerous perpetrators, Ms Lynch said. In 2017, Queensland Parliament passed the Bail (Domestic Violence) and Another Act Amendment Bill which made it more difficult for offenders to be granted bail. Angela Lynch, CEO of Women s Legal Service Queensland. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled The new laws were prompted by the
violent death of Gold Coast mum Teresa Bradford, who was murdered by her estranged husband while he was on bail for a previous attack on his wife.