Our Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill is a landmark piece of legislation, designed to radically improve the experience of people seeking justice - particularly women and girls.
10 May 2021
10 May 2021
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Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee has released a draft bill that would increase penalties for offences committed in the context of domestic or family violence. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has warned that sentences for domestic violence offences are too lenient in the ACT, putting the Territory out of step with most other Australian jurisdictions.
Aggravated offences that increase the penalty for offending in a family violence context were necessary to tackle the “evil” crime, deputy director of public prosecutions Anthony Williamson wrote in a letter to the chairperson of the Victims Advisory Board, Richard Glenn.
“Where the physical injury personally inflicted upon the victim is extensive”
“Where the type of weapon or manner in which a deadly or dangerous weapon including firearms is used exhibited an extreme and immediate threat to human life”
“I recognize there are some victims that want this office to seek the maximum sentence permissible in their case, but punishment must be in the community’s best interest, proportional, and it must serve a rehabilitative or restorative purpose,” Gascón said in Friday’s statement.
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The amendment comes less than two weeks after Gascón released a flurry of nine special directives to his deputy D.A.’s. This included Special Directive 20-08, directed his deputy D.A.s to no longer seek to apply sentence enhancements, which lengthen a prison sentence when certain additional requirements are met.