VIOLENT MEN DESERVE TO SIT IN PRISON

DESPITE concerns of cops, the pleading of victims and the grand words of politicians all the way up to the Prime Minister, Queensland courts still appear to fail to grasp how serious domestic violence has become.

If the full force of the law were to be applied, then men who seize their terrified partners and throttle them would be locked away for a long time, up to a maximum of seven years, instead of being back on the streets within months.

Strangulation is seen by experienced police, scientific researchers and indeed the State Government as a red flag in domestic violence cases for future serious abuse or homicide. Concerns are such that non-fatal strangulation is an offence under the criminal code.

But unlike criminals deemed to be serious violent offenders and made to serve at least 80 per cent of their jail time, men resorting to choking current or former partners are out on parole in a relatively short time.

In the past six months, the Bulletin has reported how:

• A man who lied to try to save his own skin, cutting himself with a knife in a bid to convince police he acted in self defence, had in fact lifted a woman off the ground as he choked her with two hands. He was jailed for two years but allowed parole after eight months, even though the judge did not believe he was remorseful.

• A man who in separate attacks tried to smother his partner with a plastic bag and later squeezed her throat so hard she could not breathe, was sentenced to two years but given immediate parole because he had been in custody already for eight months.

• A young father was jailed in December for 18 months for strangling and stomping on the head of his partner, but was due for release in February.

• A 51-year-old man who smashed his partner’s head against a car and choked her claimed he was drunk and had no memory of the incident. He was jailed in January for two years but is due for release in April.

• A chef who choked his fiancee and attacked her mother was jailed in February for 18 months but granted immediate parole because of time spent in custody.

Yesterday, a thug who choked his partner and turned on a 9-year-old child who pleaded with him to stop was jailed for more than two years but given immediate parole because of 10 months spent in custody. The court ordered drug and alcohol testing, and put him on probation.

More often than not, the Gold Coast is ground zero for domestic violence. Police here are concentrating on strangulation as they maintain a watch list and try to preempt the violence they know some men are capable of inflicting.

The entire community now understands this is a full-blown crisis. It is time the courts played their part. The revolving door system has to stop.

Domestic violence is a first-order issue in the community. It is given priority by police and has state and federal leaders worried. But it appears the courts have yet to catch up with that sense of outrage.