Facing A domestic violence charge in QLD?

Domestic violence is when one person behaves in a way that controls or dominates another person and causes fear for their safety and wellbeing.

Domestic violence is usually a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour taking many forms. It happens in intimate, family or informal care relationships.

Regardless of age, culture, sexuality or gender identity, you have the right to live without fear.

Domestic violence includes a wide range of behaviours that control or dominate someone, or cause them to fear for their personal safety or wellbeing. These behaviours may include:

• physical or sexual abuse—punching, hitting, choking, or threatening to punch or hit, forcing a person to participate in sexual acts, damaging someone’s property or threatening to damage property, including hurting or threatening to hurt pets

• emotional or psychological abuse—stalking, repeated text messaging, making insulting comments, calling someone names, blackmailing or extorting, preventing contact with family and/or friends, controlling someone’s appearance, putting them down, threatening to expose their sexual orientation

• economic abuse—denying, withholding, controlling or misusing money or property, or threatening to do so

• threatening behaviour—saying things or acting in a way to make someone feel afraid, threatening to commit suicide or self-harm, stalking

• coercive behaviour—forcing, intimidating or manipulating a person to do things they don’t want to do, such as sign a contract (e.g. for a loan) or a legal document giving another person power over their affairs (e.g. power of attorney).

Domestic violence extends to children seeing violence, like their parent being hurt, being called names, things being broken or police arriving.

Violence is considered domestic violence when any of the behaviours listed above take place in any of these relationships:

• an intimate personal relationship—two people (regardless of gender) who are, or were, a couple, engaged, married, in a de facto relationship, the parents of a child or in a registered relationship (a legally recognised relationship between two people regardless of gender)

• a family relationship—two relatives (by marriage or blood), including a child over 18, parent, stepchild, stepparent, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle, nephew or niece, as for some community groups, a person who is not related by blood or marriage but is considered a relative

• an informal care relationship—one person who is, or was, depending on another person for help with daily living activities. (Note: It is not considered ‘domestic’ violence when a person is a paid carer under a commercial arrangement.)

Violence is considered domestic violence when any of the behaviours listed above take place in any of these relationships:

• an intimate personal relationship—two people (regardless of gender) who are, or were, a couple, engaged, married, in a de facto relationship, the parents of a child or in a registered relationship (a legally recognised relationship between two people regardless of gender)

• a family relationship—two relatives (by marriage or blood), including a child over 18, parent, stepchild, stepparent, brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle, nephew or niece, as for some community groups, a person who is not related by blood or marriage but is considered a relative

• an informal care relationship—one person who is, or was, depending on another person for help with daily living activities. (Note: It is not considered ‘domestic’ violence when a person is a paid carer under a commercial arrangement.)

If you have a problem or dispute with someone who isn’t considered a respondent under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act, you may apply for a Peace and Good Behaviour Order under the Peace and Good Behaviour Act 1982.

You can apply for an Order to protect your rights to peace and quiet, undisturbed by threats to your wellbeing or your quality of life, if a person has done any of the following:

• threatened to assault or do bodily injury to you or someone under your care—or has threatened to have someone else do it—and you fear this person because of this threat

• threatened to destroy or damage your property—or threatened to have someone else do it—and you fear this person because of this threat

• displayed intentional conduct that has caused you to fear that the person will destroy or damage your property.

What the Order does

You can apply to the Magistrates Court for a peace and good behaviour order that requires the named individual to ‘keep the peace’ and ‘be of good behaviour’ towards you. The order can remain in force for a specified time period or as the court sees fit.

To grant the Order, the Court must be satisfied that the respondent has committed or threatened to commit an act of wilful injury or wilful damage against you and/or your property, or has had another person do it.

Before you apply

Before you start proceedings, contact us for a free case assessment to discuss:

• the strength of your case: as you need to prove in Court that your complaint is true

• costs, as the Court may award costs against you if your case is unsuccessful.

(1) A person commits a crime if—

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—7 years imprisonment.​

The Prosecution must prove that:

1. The defendant unlawfully choked/ suffocated/ strangled the complainant.

2. The choking/ suffocation/ strangulation was unlawful. Unlawful means not justified authorised or excused by law.

3. The complainant did not consent.

4. The defendant and the complainant were in a domestic relationship with each other.