The Courier Mail reported that a man was sentenced to nine month in jail after punching a hole in the door of a hotel room where his partner and four children were sleeping. He was yelling abuse and demanding to be let in when police arrived. The man was on a suspended sentence for previous breaches of a domestic violence order.
The Magistrate said he had “no doubt the children and [woman] would have felt significantly threatened by his behaviour”.
“Drunken antics” eh? No different to a beer-fuelled nudie run or doing the Macarena down Main Street. Just a bit of fun, something anyone would do after a few too many drinks? And he’s a “father of four” so either he’s a responsible family man who made a little mistake or he’s an aggrieved dad denied access to his children by a vengeful woman, right?
No. Just no.
Domestic abuse is not just physical violence. It is instilling terror into family members. It’s exactly this kind of behaviour. A man with a history of domestic abuse punching a hole in a door while screaming abuse at his partner and children is violent, intimidating rage, designed to terrify and control.
Erasing the violence of this behaviour is ignorant and irresponsible journalism. It’s well past time it stopped.
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