Domestic Violence Offences
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It is common for people to speak of a “domestic violence offence” (or a “DV” offence as it is often called). In actual fact, at the time of writing this article, there is no such thing as a stand-alone offence of “domestic violence” in NSW, at least not yet (the government is currently considering introducing such an offence).
In NSW, a domestic violence offence is simply any criminal offence that is committed in a domestic context (i.e. where the accused and the complainant are or were in a domestic relationship). The most common types of domestic violence offences are assaults and the offence of “stalk/intimidate with intent to cause fear”. Sexual offences can also be a domestic violence offence if the complainant (i.e. alleged victim) is a family member of the accused. Click here to find out more about assault offences; here to find out more about the offence of “stalk/intimidate with intent to cause fear” and here to find out more about sexual offences.
Even though there is no such thing as a domestic violence offence per-se, there is a range of consequences where an offence is categorised as a domestic violence offence, these include:
- Relating to bail, complainants in a domestic violence offence have special rights to apply to vary the conditions of the accused’s bail; and
- There are special provisions about the way the courts must sentence offenders in domestic violence cases.
If you or someone close to you is charged with a domestic violence offence and you need some legal advice, feel free to call us for a no cost, no obligation and confidential chat or complete the form below to make an on-line enquiry.
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