The Canberra Times reports Chief Justice Terence Higgins of the ACT Supreme Court labelled domestic violence against women a “pernicious and evil phenomenon”.
He said the blame for domestic assualts rested squarely with the perpetrator and their criminal actions and that “it was entirely in the public interest that such conduct be exposed and deterred”.
He made these comments in a written judgement of a case in which he sentenced a man to two years’ jail, with an 18 month non-parole period, for beating his former partner, the mother of his children.
In the judgement he also said the “evil influence” of domestic violence spread to children, even if they were not directly involved or assaulted. He said that it was no coincidence that most young people who came before the courts had a family background of domestic assaults.