Magistrate warns of family violence crackdown as man jailed

The 30-year-old pleaded guilty in the Portland Magistrates Court this week to a range of charges relating to three police briefs of evidence.

Those charges included reckless conduct endangering serious injury and breaching and persistently breaching intervention orders.

The man cannot be named as he's a party to an intervention order and identifying him would identify the victim.

The crackdown comes days after two knife attacks in Sydney, one involving a man who killed six people - including five women, while two women have recently been allegedly killed by men in Ballarat.

Warrnambool magistrate Gerard Lethbridge told this week's defendant superior courts had guided him to ensure everyone who breached IVOs understood the seriousness of their offending and such crimes were expected to attract jail sentences.

At the same time Victoria Police is warning the state's most dangerous family violence perpetrators there's nowhere to hide - as a crackdown leads to a record number of offenders being arrested and brought before the courts each day.

Frontline police and specialised teams - including family violence investigation units and the family violence command taskforce - are proactively targeting and apprehending offenders for family violence crimes to ensure the safety of victim-survivors.

Crime Statistics Agency figures show 29,233 family violence offenders were either arrested or summonsed to court last year.

It equates to an average of 80 arrests or summons to court each day.

The figures are up slightly on the prior year when an average 79 arrests or summons were made each day.

That's one person arrested or brought before the courts for family violence offending every 18 minutes.

The vast majority of offenders were arrested for serious family violence crimes, as well as actively avoiding police detection, outstanding warrants or unserved family violence intervention orders, breaching such orders, stalking and making threats.

And the south-west courts - Warrnambool, Hamilton and Portland - are full of defendants/respondents to intervention orders, with such orders aiming to protect complainants from violence, harassment, abuse and other forms of domestic violence.

Mr Lethbridge said the offender in one case came before the court with a very poor history of breaching intervention orders, persistently breach orders, for offences of violence, making threats and breaching court orders, including community corrections orders.

"This involved some serious offending where you engaged in reckless conduct endangering serious injury," he said.

The magistrate said court orders were put in place to prevent exactly the sort of offending the Portland man had engaged in.

He said the man's actions were "absolutely unacceptable".

Mr Lethridge said higher courts had made it clear that court orders must be respected and predominantly men could not engage in rage when confronted by relationship issues.

He said a crystal clear message had to be sent to the community that male partners had no right to make threats to women, courts had to strongly denounce violence in domestic relationships and effective enforcement of intervention orders was crucial.

"There should be no misapprehension that courts will punish severely breaches of such orders," the magistrate said, adding imprisonment was a starting point for those who repeatedly breached court orders.

"You can't continue this campaign of harassment and breaching intervention orders. You will simply be arrested and spend years in custody."

The offender said he understood his situation.

He was jailed for five months, disqualified from driving for 12 months and he was warned if he drove he risked another jail sentence.

He has already spent 101 days in pre-sentence detention, which will be counted as served.

"You need to get you life back on track, you simply can't breach orders any more," Mr Lethbridge told the man.

Victoria Police said only recently, the tireless work of the family violence command taskforce resulted in the arrest of a 33-year-old man for family violence offending against multiple victims.

Some of the offences included stalking, distributing intimate images, threats to kill and persistently contravening an IVO.

The man had been actively avoiding police apprehension and breached his IVO daily before being caught and taken to court. He was sentenced to two years behind bars.

Another effort by members resulted in a 40-year-old man being sentenced to nine months in prison for family violence offending, with a 15-month community corrections order upon release and 200 hours of unpaid community work.

The man committed serious acts of violence towards several victims before being arrested by police, including physical assault, intentionally and recklessly causing serious injury, threats to kill and stalking.

Family violence command Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway said these figures highlighted Victoria Police's continual efforts in tracking down family violence offenders, some of the worst in the state.

"Family violence is completely unacceptable and there is never an excuse or justification for the crime," she said.

"We have thousands of police officers across Victoria working tirelessly to apprehend family violence perpetrators and bring them before the courts to ensure the safety of victim-survivors.

"We need family violence perpetrators to stop and really think of the damage they are doing to their partners and children.

"Some go to great lengths to avoid apprehension - including blackmailing victim-survivors or using friends to keep them in hiding - but they're always in the sights of police.

"Our message to family violence perpetrators is clear: closed doors will not protect you from being tracked down and held to account."

Victoria Police says it's committed to responding to all forms of family violence, supporting victims and holding perpetrators to account.