Co-ordination 'could halve' domestic violence

A co-ordinated community response could reduce domestic violence by 50 per cent within five years, a conference in Sligo heard yesterday.

Dr Ellen Pence, a US expert and author of books on domestic violence, told an audience of 200 professionals that domestic abuse was down 25 per cent in the US and had been reduced by as much as 55 per cent in some communities.

Her views on the need for co- operation between police, lawyers, medical personnel and the judiciary were supported by Ursula Regan, a family law practitioner and former chairwoman of Women's Aid, who said that domestic violence in Ireland was at "epidemic levels".

She pointed out that in the family law courts in Dublin city, women currently have to wait 12 to 14 weeks for a court hearing to decide whether they should be granted safety orders or barring orders.

"This is endangering women because it alerts the abuser to the fact that application has been made for a barring order or safety order," said Ms Regan. "It also endangers the safety of children who are caught up in the situation and who are the silent victims."

Judges were being put in impossible situations where they had to decide on issues involving children without having access to any risk assessment reports. Women were being doubly victimised in many cases and made feel guilty for proceeding with prosecutions. "Some women come under pressure from family members who ask what will happen if he goes to jail and the family loses its income and perhaps cannot pay the mortgage," Ms Regan added.

The ability of perpetrators of domestic violence to "groom" or manipulate the system will be highlighted in the forthcoming report by those running a pilot programme in the DúLaoghaire/Bray district court area.

Former relationship counsellor Don Hennessy, who is heading up the pilot programme aimed at improving co-ordination between the relevant agencies, said one of the weaknesses of the legal system was the failure to identify patterns of behaviour.

"The gardaí and the judges deal only with the most recent incident and that makes it easier for the offender to manipulate the system," he said.

Mr Hennessy, director of the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency, echoed Ms Pence's views about the need for police investigating an offence to get a much information at the scene as possible. "Offenders are devious and they will always find the weakness in the system."

He said the common trait of those who abused their partners, whether they were unemployed or successful business executives, was their sense of entitlement.