Law Week 2012 hypothetical part 3

[Law Week Hypothetical 2012]
[Continues from part 2]

>> Kay Mcgrath: Okay, well let's develop our scenario a little bit.

For the next two weeks, things at home are pretty calm, they're pretty peaceful, they're getting on with things but one evening Samantha arrives home and she finds Jacob really angry and upset.

He's been looking at the phone bill. He's seen calls to numbers that he doesn't recognise, so he's in a rage.

Who's she been ringing? Is she cheating on him?

So he grabs Samantha by the shoulders and he physically shoves her against the wall and he yells at her, you cow, I will get you for this. If you ever cheat on me I will fix you up and you will pay for this.

Samantha, at this stage, is terrified. Finally she picks up the phone, she rings 000 - she decides to ring the police.

Inspector Mark Wheatley, what happens when your officers arrive at Sam and Jacob's place?

>> Inspector Wheatley: Thanks Kay.

The police - it's not surprising - well, maybe it's surprising to some members of the audience, that domestic violence is one of our highest calls for service. It leads into a number of other types of crimes, so it's something that we're faced with daily.

Some of our communities in Queensland, it's the highest call for service.

So with this type of scenario, there's two options that police will have.

First of all they are extremely volatile situations. That is a very certain thing with domestic violence. Many of our officers are injured in those situations. But they'll go into the house, they'll make sure of the safety of everyone in the house and themselves, is a paramount concern for essentially the safety of the people there. Then they'll separate the parties, they'll investigate the incident and determine - make a determination if there was in fact, domestic violence, which in this case, there was.

Now, there's two options that police can take in this scenario.

One, if they feel after the investigation, that there is a need - that the violence will reoccur, so it's of an urgent nature, if you like, then they take action.

They can take Jacob away for a four-hour period, detain him and the application is applied for then.

Alternatively if they think that this is something that is not a one-off, but on a less urgent or less dangerous nature, if you like, on a scale, they'll go back to the station, take out an application, come back and serve it on Jacob.

It's very important that that's served and that's the whole basis for, as the scenario develops - we'll talk about that later on because that will lead into perhaps the criminal action of the breach later on.

Now, if there's children at the house police are obliged to notify the Department of Communities.

If there's children who ordinarily reside with the aggrieved or respondent, the respondent in this case is Jacob, the aggrieved is Samantha.

>> Kay McGrath: Thank you Mark.

Can you go on and explain to us in layman's terms exactly what a domestic violence protection order is? How does that work?

>> Inspector Wheatley: Yes, it's the form of protection. It's a civil mechanism that we have in Queensland and all states in Australia have them.

It's an order, so if we enlarge this scenario and the application is applied for, the police are then - they serve the paperwork on Jacob to say he's required in court, say, in Brisbane Magistrates Court in two weeks' time. Then the application will be heard, and there's representatives of the judiciary here that will no doubt enlarge upon that.

But the order, once it's given - it essentially means that Jacob must be of good behaviour towards the aggrieved and anyone else named in the order, then…

>> Kay McGrath: So, her mum and dad, her friends and relatives as well?

>> Inspector Wheatley: It's possible.

If the police investigation reveals - and that will be most likely through Samantha herself - look, he's made threats towards my mother or my best friend. So for example, the school friend perhaps, even. It could potentially enlarge to him, perhaps. Then he must not commit domestic violence.

That's the essential one. There are all sorts of other orders that can be given but that's the essential one.

He must not commit domestic violence against the aggrieved, Samantha.

>> Kay McGrath: I believe the order also says you mustn't be armed at any stage, so he can't carry any type of weapon. Is it just firearms?

>> Inspector Wheatley: Well it's firearms, officially, with the Weapons Act, of course, there's the ability to - a weapon is I guess, a very broad term, isn't it? But at least with a firearm he must surrender the firearm and his weapons license is suspended.

>> Kay McGrath: Just a quick question without notice: can I ask how much of your time is taken up with domestic violence? Would it be 20 per cent, 40 per cent, 60 per cent?

>> Inspector Wheatley: Look, my time is…

>> Kay McGrath: Well, the police, QPS?

>> Inspector Wheatley: The Police Service? We did do some statistics.

It's recently - my previous role - and this is why I got to know most members of the panel, was as the coordinator for domestic violence unit with the Police Service. It was our third highest call for service, sitting around just under the 15 per cent mark, which means there's a lot of jobs, a lot of tasks that we had that are two per cent of our calls for service.

So one of our highest calls for service, for example, are crashes.

But at just under 15 per cent, domestic violence, it's incredibly high and as I said before, in some of our communities it's the highest call for service and leads into all sorts of other social and law enforcement issues.

>> Kay McGrath: Yes, and repercussions within the community. Thank you Mark.

Now, the police, as Mark explained, they have a chat to both Jacob and Samantha. Samantha tells the police that she's worried that Jacob will assault her again if she continues to stay in the apartment.

So Amanda Whelan, can we come to you, from the Brisbane Domestic Violence Advocacy Service. What sort of support services are in place for women like Sam to help them actually physically get out of that domestic violence situation? Where can she turn, what help is there?

>> Amanda Whelan: Yes, for a woman like Samantha our service covers the Brisbane Metropolitan area. We take 1600 calls a year, many of them from women very much like Samantha or else from concerned family and friends or services that may be working with somebody like her.

I guess it depends on the level of concern and risk and also about where somebody might be at in terms of how ready they are to act.

We know that women take between nine and 11 times on average before they finally decide to leave a relationship where there's violence and so many never do. So we know that it's a process for them and there's a lot of things to consider like your children and your wellbeing and where you're going to go.

What we are really fortunate about here in Queensland as well as having fantastic legislation, we have a very responsive police force and so what we say is obviously if you are immediately concerned, to dial 000.

We also have DV Connect, which is our state wide 24/7 DV support line. There's now also a national line as well, which is 1800 RESPECT that anyone in Australia can call, so there are options for you 24/7.

There are also services like ours. We're a regional service for Brisbane and they exist across the entire state.

What our services are funded by State Government to provide are the kinds of, I guess, space for women to start a conversation. They may not be ready to leave yet but they might want to start really thinking about what is the impact of this? It might be I'm not sure whether this is violence, I'm not sure, I've been told that it's all my fault, I want somewhere I can speak to someone who's going to listen to me. It might be that they are ready to go and they want to talk about a safety plan. It might be that they want a straight referral into refuge, which means that we get on the phone to DV Connect or we contact the refuges directly. It might be that they need to really plan their way out.

Also, it's about acknowledge there are immense amounts of emotion around decisions like these and it's really important that women are supported and encouraged and given the strength and confidence to step their way through, because it isn't easy.

>> Kay McGrath: Thanks Amanda.

Amanda's given us a good overview there of the services. I'd like to go now to Nicola Doumany, who's in our audience and Nicola is from Victim Assist.

Hi Nicola, thanks for coming today. Tell us what assistance you could provide Samantha.

>> Nicola Doumany: Yes, Victim Assist is a government agency and we provide financial assistance and access to services for victims of violent crime, including domestic violence.

So in Samantha's case, she needs to report the act of violence to the police, which she's done, and to see a doctor and get a medical certificate. Then she can apply for financial assistance through us. We can help with some immediate needs straight away for up to $6000 worth of assistance. That might be in helping Samantha relocate with Lucas and getting safe or even if she wanted to stay at the home, upgrading the security in the home so she feels safe there.

Then we can put together a final package of assistance and that will look at all of her needs including her future counselling needs, what she needs to feel safe. If she's lost earnings because she couldn't work because of the act of violence, again, we could assist her with that.

>> Kay McGrath: Counselling - I would imagine - do you provide counselling at all, or is that another…

>> Nicola Doumany: We provide referral to specialist counselling services. We refer to Relationships Australia Victims of Crime Services program but we can also pay for Samantha, if she has a psychologist or a counsellor she likes and wants to see, we can pay for her to see the counsellor of her choice as well.

>> Kay McGrath: While that might not be the immediate priority, I'm sure that that's very important for a lot of women. Would that be your experience?

>> Nicola Doumany: Yes, immediate priorities are normally safety and getting to a spot where you can be safe and from there we can put together that final package of assistance.

We can also amend the package of assistance for up to six years. So if Samantha finds her circumstances change if for some reason she's concerned about Jacob's behaviour then we could assist her again with some extra assistance.

>> Kay McGrath: It's very reassuring isn't it, to know that there's services there.

How busy are you, can I ask, Nicola?

>> Nicola Doumany: Look, we're pretty busy. [laughs]

About probably around 20 per cent of our matters relate to domestic violence matters. We would receive probably - I think this year will be around 3000 applications for assistance, and rising.

>> Kay McGrath: And rising. Well, good and bad news; good to know you're there. Thank you, Nicola.

[Part 3 ends - continues in part 4]

Last updated 30 October 2015