00:07I do not trust the police or the systems anymore.
00:13I'm absolutely exhausted, but I also feel very broken.
00:18Like my whole, everything I've worked towards is just gone.
00:21When Stephanie realised she was the victim of coercive control,
00:25she reached out to dozens of organisations for help,
00:29keeping track on reams of paper.
00:31But it was her interactions with police that left her reeling.
00:36I'm wondering if there's a police officer there
00:39or any police officers that are understanding of coercive control at all.
00:43Over the phone, a police officer told her coercive control is difficult to prove
00:48and that her case wouldn't stand in court.
00:51I was left feeling like I was wasting their time.
00:54Coercive control laws came into effect here in Queensland 12 months ago.
00:58The stand-alone offence criminalises a persistent pattern of abusive behaviour
01:03used to manipulate, intimidate and isolate.
01:07It carries a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
01:12After the phone call, Stephanie tried again, going into a Brisbane police station
01:17to show officers evidence of abuse by her former partner.
01:21I showed him the text messages or the communication that was happening
01:26and that particular officer said, for you this is one problem
01:30and for us we've got about 40 or 50 of these.
01:33In the first 10 months of the new laws,
01:36327 coercive control incidents were reported to police.
01:41We're seeing one person die about every eight days at the hands of an intimate partner.
01:45Those kind of statistics mean that we obviously have more work to do.
01:49Coercive control, domestic violence training is the biggest component of training our police do,
01:53not only at the academy but in service training.
01:56We've invested a lot to ensure that our police are up-skilled in that training.
02:02There's concern the legislation is being misused by perpetrators who are essentially getting in first.
02:09More people reaching out to our organisation who we would have assessed as the person using violence.
02:16And they're reaching out to say that they're a victim of coercive control.
02:21Stephanie hopes telling her story will help make a difference for other victims.
02:26Even though I don't see much of a future for me, I'm still not giving up.
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