More than 1000 people charged in first year of domestic violence choking laws

More than 1000 people were charged with non-fatal choking, strangling or suffocating their partners or family members in the year after landmark new offences were introduced in Victoria.

The data analysed by the Crime Statistics Agency paints a grim picture revealing more than 230 of those perpetrators were repeat offenders and some were charged more than five times in a year for choking or strangling their partner.

The first offence of strangulation in Victoria carries a five-year maximum sentence and does not require physical proof of injury.

New data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows that in the first 12 months of the law’s operation, between October 2024 and September last year, police charged 996 people with this crime.

A further breakdown of the data shows that in 166 cases, the perpetrator was a repeat offender and in the most extreme cases they were charged with this offence more than five times.

About 130 offenders were charged with this offence twice and 23 offenders were charged three times.

Seven offenders were charged with the crime more than five times.

The second, more serious, offence of non-fatal strangulation intentionally causing injury carries a maximum sentence of 10 years behind bars and requires more evidence to prove.

For this offence, 131 people were charged during the first year. A breakdown of those offenders shows 72 were repeat perpetrators and four were charged more than five times with choking their partners or family members.

In total, 1312 criminal charges of non-fatal strangulation were laid by police under the two new criminal offences, created to increase the rate of convictions against domestic violence abusers and take the onus off victim-survivors to prove they were choked unconscious.

The new offences came after sweeping reforms were announced by the state government following the murder of Victorian woman Joy Rowley, who was strangled to death by James Martin Mulhall at her home in Rye in 2011.

A subsequent coronial inquest heard police failed Rowley at least eight times after she sought help when Mulhall choked her to the point of unconsciousness in the months leading up to her murder.

The inquest identified the urgent need for new legislation in Victoria that directly addressed non-fatal strangulation in domestic violence cases.

Last year, this masthead revealed that since the non-fatal strangulation law came into effect in October 2024, 172 criminal charges of the new offences had been finalised and perpetrators sentenced in magistrates’ courts up to August. One charge of non-fatal strangulation was also finalised in the Children’s Court.

Melbourne University law professor Heather Douglas, a renowned family violence researcher who has been tracking how strangulation laws are working across Australia, said the sheer numbers of charges laid in Victoria was a positive sign.

“It is a very strong uptake given it is the first year of the laws, and shows that police are comfortable using it,” she said.

Douglas said that historically, perpetrators would be charged with offences such as assault or intentionally causing injury, but the new law more accurately reflected the seriousness of the crime, including the risk it posed of future homicide.

Mounting research suggests a person who survives non-fatal strangulation by a current or former partner was seven times more likely to be seriously injured or murdered by that person.

One study found the likelihood of homicide leapt by 800 per cent if their partner or former partner attempted to strangle them.

Douglas warned that securing convictions for the strangulation and choking charges remained difficult.

She said research indicated that in Queensland, for example, about half of strangulation charges fall over during the court process, often due to a lack of forensic evidence.

In a world first, the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne is hoping to change this. A team of experts at the institute will soon begin using a dedicated, state government-funded MRI scanner to help police investigate internal injuries to gather forensic evidence for non-fatal strangulation victims

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, an international research leader in the area of family violence at Monash University, said the criminal charges alone were not the full story.

“We need ongoing monitoring of how these matters progress through the courts, including sentencing outcomes and whether victim-survivors feel safer, are supported through the process and have access to the services needed to support them to recover from the abuse experience,” she said.

“These laws must be accompanied by sustained investment in early intervention and prevention efforts so that we are not only responding after harm has occurred, and we are working to reduce the prevalence of acts of non-fatal strangulation.”

Christine Mathieson, interim chief executive for Safe and Equal, Victoria’s peak body for specialist family violence services, said that while the number of charges laid in the first year of these laws was promising, charges do not necessarily result in convictions.

To curb the scourge of domestic abuse, Mathieson said the government must prioritise responses from all parts of the community and service system, including upskilling workforces such as frontline specialist family violence workers.

The roll-out of the laws came as experts warn the practice of strangulation during sex has become so widespread that more than half of Australian young people have used it.

Doctors and researchers warn that understanding of the dangers is so lacking that even those who consent to it are not aware of the grave risks, which include death within minutes, brain injury and stroke.