Violence hits homes in an edgy city:A post Shared Parenting Reality
Mr Cahill presided over a public holiday Magistrates Court session yesterday at which 10 defendants nine men and a juvenile appeared charged with family violence offences, mostly committed during the Australia Day long weekend.
During a sometimes chaotic sitting, Mr Cahill told the court that he was troubled by the number of men coming before the courts accused of domestic violence.
''It would be interesting to get some statistics on the number of family violence matters we've seen lately,'' Mr Cahill said. ''It seems to me that in the past six weeks or so, there's been an explosion of family violence matters coming before these courts. I don't know what's happening in this community lately.''
Official figures from the courts or the Director of Public Prosecutions were not available yesterday because of the public holiday. And a Bungendore man in court yesterday, who is on bail for allegedly assaulting his mother late last year, is accused of going to his ex-girlfriend's home on Saturday in breach of a protection order and forcibly removing the woman's engagement ring.
AQueanbeyan defendant, was charged with three counts of common assault against his former partner and one of unlawfully confining the woman. Police allege that the man and another man abducted the victim from the Narrabundah shops and forced her to go to her Duffy home and then to another house in Kambah, assaulting her three times along the way.
The court was told that the man has an ''extensive criminal history'' going back 17 years and was wanted for questioning over another alleged assault on his ex-girlfriend on Christmas Day. The man, who is serving a suspended sentence for his role in the theft of a plasma-screen TV from the children's ward at the Canberra Hospital, was denied bail.
Mr Cahill observed: ''At this rate the family violence list will be longer than the [general] a-list.''
The city's seven women's refuges have also reported an upsurge in demand with one service, Doris Womens's Refuge saying that it was full.
A crisis worker said, ''We have the ability to cater for 12 families but at the moment we're full. We put it down to financial stress, extra pressure on households and drinking.''
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