Good Afternoon,
Today, we are publishing our legal advice on whether alleged conduct reported to Samson Rising in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria constitutes coercive control under the various domestic violence Acts (and Criminal Codes) in each of these States.
We will be releasing this advice over a number of weeks, with each week featuring a specific scenario. The events described in the scenario come directly from written statements we have received. We have not cherry picked these cases, nor have we assembled the most extreme examples possible.
This week, Scenario 1 presents a hypothetical situation in which a church leader or another individual outside a family group encourages parents within the family to expel their daughter from the family home.
Our online survey indicates that as many as 226 families have expelled their children in these circumstances.
We’ve briefed Samson legal with the scenario and requested their legal advice, assuming that a court finds the events described to be true.
Samson legal specialises in criminal law and was selected by Samson Rising for their proven track record, which includes some of Australia’s most recent and high-profile cases.
The advice aligns with the judgement in the recent Struhs case, where 8-year old Elizabeth Struhs was denied medical treatment due to the religious beliefs of the group involved.
In that case, the church leaders, the entire congregation, and Elizabeth’s mother and father were all sentenced to imprisonment, with penalties ranging from 6 to 14 years.
You can read more about the case here:
The court’s role is to balance the right to have religious beliefs, with the rights of others to be protected.
There are 81 days before coercive control is criminalised in Queensland.
Please follow the link to Scenario 1. – Parents expel their daughter from the family home
On behalf of the Team
Samson
