Appeal Type: Appeal against a Magistrate’s decision to revoke an interim intervention order.
Facts: An interim intervention order was made against the respondent (the appellant’s former husband). A Magistrate dismissed an application to confirm the order and revoked the order. The alleged abuse consisted of three letters that the respondent sent to the appellant. One of the letters concerned renewal of their deceased pet dog’s council registration and the attached dog tag. She believed that the respondent was making a point of using her address when he knew she did not want it disclosed and that the letter was a ‘gratuitous and hurtful’ reminder of the dog’s death. During their marriage, they had intimidated the respondent’s former wife by driving past her house. She was worried she would suffer similar harassment. The respondent denied all knowledge of the other letters. The appellant gave evidence which alleged prior acts of abuse by the respondent, including threats to kill and physical abuse. The Magistrate largely rejected this evidence as not proven, taking into account the fact that the appellant admitted lying in an affidavit previously filed in the Family Court. The Magistrate also rejected the respondent’s explanation about sending the dog tag and found it was sent out of spite to upset the appellant.
Notwithstanding, while this conduct was spiteful, the Magistrate was not satisfied it resulted in emotional and psychological harm within the meaning of the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009 (the Act). The Magistrate concluded that it was reasonable to suspect that the conduct would cause ‘upset, annoyance and anger’ but not harm. While the Magistrate found it was reasonable to suspect that the conduct would continue without intervention because the respondent’s evidence ‘did not provide any direct reassurance that the conduct will not continue’ (See at [19]), he found that it would not be appropriate in the circumstances to confirm the order. He gave the respondent an opportunity to show he would not persist with the conduct. If the conduct persisted, the appellant could make an application for a further interim order. The Magistrate also noted the appellant was a personal trainer, coaches kick boxing and holds a black belt in martial arts.
Issue/s:
Decision and Reasoning: The appeal was dismissed.
‘Here there was no proven act of past abuse. While the Magistrate accepted there was a reasonable suspicion abuse would occur in the future without intervention, it might be inferred that the Magistrate did not consider there to be a high likelihood of this occurring. Indeed, the Magistrate’s judgment appears (from his reference to the contingency that his judgment might prove to be misplaced) to have been that the suspicion will probably not come to fruition. It is also relevant that while there was a suspicion of abuse in the broad sense contemplated by the Act (i.e. extending to emotional and psychological harm), the Magistrate made a positive finding that it was not reasonable to suspect that the defendant would cause physical harm to the protected person.