FAMILY violence perpetrators are ignoring intervention orders and inflicting further terror on their victims by committing rapes, assaults and even homicide.
New figures from Victoria Police show that family violence perpetrators committed 7271 crimes in breach of their orders last financial year, up from 5317 crimes the previous year.
Perpetrators who breached their intervention orders or safety notices committed 3492 assaults, 31 rapes, 1237 damage to property offences, as well as 16 arsons.
There was one homicide accompanying a breach of intervention order. The Herald Sun believes this is the case of Sargun Ragi, a young Indian woman murdered by her controlling husband 10 days after she took out an order against him in September 2012.
However, more than 22,000 full intervention orders were taken out to protect women and children, and another 11,000 to protect men and boys, showing that intervention orders were, in the main, successful in keeping victims of family violence safe.
Principal lawyer at the Women's Legal Service Victoria Helen Matthews said the figures showed police were taking more action against those who breached their orders.
She said there was still more work to be done in getting police to pursue those who breached intervention orders, particularly in smaller communities, but that increasingly breaches were being taken seriously and concerns addressed quickly.
"Intervention orders are very important,'' she said.
"If it weren't for these orders we would not be able to remove women from violent situations.
"I think they're really valuable.
"The incidence of family violence is greatest at time of separation, so to have the ability to make an interim order, and have police respond quickly if required, is very valuable.''
The Women's Legal Service provides a duty lawyer every day to work with victims in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, and runs a free legal advice telephone service.
Ms Matthews, who has been a family lawyer working with domestic violence victims for 25 years, said some magistrates, including Kate Hawkins, made it very clear to offenders than any breach of an intervention order would result in criminal sanctions.
"That really makes an impact on people,'' she said.
'There's always going to be, unfortunately, a number of people who don't respond to court orders any more than they respond to laws that say don't assault people.
"Really it's about reducing the risk and there is a real level of compliance.''
Ms Matthews said while the Melbourne Magistrates Court was well equipped and funded to deal with family violence matters, many other courts were not.
She said other courts, particularly smaller courts in the regions, were underfunded, and not able to provide support for victims, legal services for victims or perpetrators, or even office space for complainants and respondents to meet with their lawyers and try to resolve their concerns by agreement.
As well, she said Melbourne Magistrates Court now handled cases from a larger slice of the metropolitan area, which substantially increased its workload, but had not received a corresponding funding increase to handle the influx.
