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  • 1 year ago
The State failed Samantha Isaacs. This was the refrain from presenters at the National Consultation on Domestic Violence today, even as the statistics are showing an increase in domestic violence reports.


In 2017 Isaacs was murdered and her body dumped on a roadway by her ex-boyfriend, who subsequently killed himself.


Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
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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