Are protection orders worth anything?

The Spinoff has an article by Zeni Gibson which details eight years of harassment by a man called Greg. Her suffering has been appalling, and hey tormenter has made a mockery of the law that should be protecting her.

I can’t even summarise all the multiple failings, but it sadly doesn’t surprise me. There have been so many cases where protection orders are basically worthless.

I think we need a massive law change, where breaches of protection orders (after a threshold) just get you automatic jail time. I would advocate something along the lines of:

• 1st breach – Police contact offender within 24 hours to warn them they have broken the order and are facing arrest
• 2nd breach – Police arrest offender, process them, and schedule a court hearing
• 3rd breach – Police arrest offender, a dedicated court hears case within 24 hours, and automatic 48 hour jail sentence
• 4th breach – automatic 96 hour jail sentence
• 6th breach – one week etc etc

No one should have to go through what Zeni Gibson did. If she is assaulted or killed by her harasser this will be a preventable crime. It is not good enough.

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