Campaign to treat DV like terrorism

DOMESTIC violence offenders must be “treated like terrorists in the courtroom” with current bail laws failing victims of abuse, a legal group says.

Women’s Legal Service Queensland CEO Angela Lynch said the state had an “ad hoc” bail system that allowed high-risk offenders to slip back into the community after being charged with serious crimes.

“The federal and state governments don’t wait there for the terrorist to blow the bridge up, they intervene to make sure that doesn’t happen and that’s what we have to do,” she said yesterday.

The call comes amid shocking revelations that Brian Earl Johnston, the man charged with murdering his estranged partner Kelly Wilkinson on the Gold Coast, had walked from police custody on serious charges eight days earlier without even having to apply for bail.

“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.

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.

Ms Lynch said the Bail Act had to be reviewed once more to help authorities “better respond to levels of dangerousness”.

“These are all interactions and points of contact where there could be a better response. We have to review this case very carefully,” she said.

“We owe that to Kelly and we owe that to her children that we take this very seriously and that we try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”