00:00Over 5,300 domestic violence reports were filed with the police in 2023, with roughly
00:071,700 of those reports being assault by beating.
00:11But despite the marked increase in reporting, the number of persons charged and prosecuted
00:17remains low.
00:18Overall, out of the 5,362 reported cases, only 174 persons were charged for assault
00:29by beating.
00:31Worse, when we look at how many persons were actually prosecuted or convicted, we see that
00:39in total, for 2023, only 35 persons were prosecuted or convicted, and only 9 in assault by beating
00:48cases.
00:50Just over 2,500 domestic violence reports have been lodged for 2024.
00:56The trend holds that a majority of victims are women.
01:00Between 2010 and 2022, there were an average of about 1,800 domestic violence cases per
01:07year, and of this number, 381 were murders.
01:128.4% of all murders committed between 1995 and 2013 were because of domestic violence.
01:21One such victim was Samantha Isaacs, hailed as a landmark case.
01:26The May 16, 2024 decision by Justice Robin Muhammad held that the rights of Samantha
01:32Isaacs, her son and her mother, Tut Lampkin, to the protection of the law were infringed
01:38upon by the inaction of the police and the judiciary, eventually leading to her death.
01:44Samantha went to the magistrate's court for maintenance on a protection order.
01:49The magistrate appeared to have disbelieved her need for a protection order and thought
01:54that she was using the protection order as an excuse to get maintenance out of her partner.
01:59And eventually, on that fateful day, when he turned up and said she was not there, the
02:04magistrate dismissed the case.
02:06She was left without a protection order.
02:09The attorney general further noted that at the time of Isaacs' murder, the police were
02:14also not expressly obligated under the Domestic Violence Act to investigate domestic violence
02:21a gap in the law which was rectified by amendment back in 2020.
02:27But even without the amendments, the AG points out that police officers can still act decisively
02:32on domestic violence reports.
02:35When somebody comes to you and complains, as Samantha did, that she had been brutally
02:42beaten by her partner, that constitutes a criminal offence, it's known as an assault.
02:49And therefore, the police have ample power to investigate, go and talk to the neighbours,
02:55go and talk to Samantha, get medical reports, talk to the gentleman himself, the perpetrator,
03:03and after a proper investigation, you come to the conclusion that there is sufficient
03:08evidence to justify a charge.
03:12But President of the Law Association Lynette C. Brown-Sweet laments that there is still
03:17a tendency on the part of the police to simply refer victims to the magistrate's court for
03:23protection orders without pursuing the route of laying charges.
03:28When the protection order is granted, there is not a punitive sanction applied.
03:35It is in the nature of a quasi-injunctive relief.
03:39And so you are just told to do things that you were supposed to have been doing or to
03:44refrain from doing things that you should not be doing.
03:47It is only when you breach the protection order that the sanction of the criminal comes in.
03:53As such, stakeholders gathered today for a public consultation towards improving policies
03:58and legislation to treat with the scourge of domestic violence.
04:03The goal is to respond effectively to every single report of domestic violence made known
04:14to the police.
04:16I can give you the assurance that the police, along with the rest of the society, have moved
04:23a long way in terms of its attitude to domestic violence.
04:28It is no longer, as was seen in the larger society, and certainly by elements of the
04:33police service, a matter of man and woman business.
04:37In this regard, a minister with responsibility for policing, Keith Scotland, is urging victims
04:42of domestic violence to report and to stay the course.
04:46Victims, if you do not report domestic violence and prosecute domestic violence, it will go
04:55unchecked.
04:56And I want to take this very brief opportunity to let you know that you have the support
05:03of the police, and if you do not report domestic violence, it will go unnoticed, it will go
05:09unprosecuted, and more likely than not, it will be repeated.
05:14Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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