The killing of a Gold Coast woman by her estranged husband who was on bail after allegedly strangling her has prompted calls to tackle shortcomings around victim safety in Queensland’s domestic violence reforms.
Teresa Bradford, 40, was killed by husband David, 52, on Tuesday at the Pimpama house they formerly shared, with their four children present, police believe.
David Bradford, who is believed to have then killed himself, had been released on 12 January after 44 days in custody over an alleged attack on his wife at their home on 28 November.
He was granted bail against the objections of police by magistrate Colin Strofield, who presides over Queensland’s first specialist domestic violence court in Southport.
Both Strofield and chief magistrate Ray Rinaudo have declined all requests for media comment while the matter is under police investigation and likely to be referred to a coroner, a spokeswoman for the department of justice said.
David Bradford, who had been charged with assault, deprivation of liberty and the new offence of choking, suffocation, or strangulation in a domestic relationship, was subject to an interim domestic violence order and bail conditions to stay away from his wife.
Teresa Bradford, who once lived in Sydney with her husband, where she worked as a train guard, had custody of their four children aged nine to 17 and was a student nurse at Griffith University.
She had been in contact with several domestic violence services, advising one agency she was “extremely fearful” for her safety upon his release, according to Betty Taylor, the chief executive of the Red Rose Foundation.
Taylor said the “shocking” tragedy – the fifth domestic violence death on the Gold Coast in 16 months – highlighted the critical role courts played in assessing high-risk domestic violence situations.
A petition calling for changes to bail laws, including a presumption against bail for violent alleged offenders, has drawn support from thousands, including friends of Bradford, who have told reporters she spoke repeatedly of her fears for herself and her children.
Taylor warned that blanket changes to stop alleged offenders getting bail would likely tie up courts in lengthy contested matters.
Instead, she called for a formal role for government-funded domestic violence risk assessment teams in providing advice to magistrates when bail applications were opposed.
These “multi-disciplinary” teams could ensure that women’s own views about their safety were heard, along with “collective evidence” from across government agencies and other organisations, Taylor said.
“When there’s a high-risk domestic violence and police are opposing bail, I believe that matter should be adjourned and the magistrate can seek information about not just why police oppose bail, but what is the victim actually saying – does she have a voice into that court?” Taylor told the Guardian.
“I believe that if [Teresa’s] voice was heard in the court about how terrified she was, that decision could have been different.
“I’ve spoken to one agency that did have contact with her and they said yes, she was extremely fearful.
“We know there was contact with domestic violence services, more than one, we know she’d been hospitalised for stress, she was under a psychiatrist, the police had been out there, there was a protection order.
“There was enough people collectively that could have portrayed to the court where she was thinking and what her risk level was. I think it’s that collective risk assessment we need to get before the courts.
“Domestic violence deaths are predictable and preventable and there’s no two ways about it – she was in fear of her life and she knew that he could kill her.”
The top ranking police officer on the Gold Coast, assistant commissioner Brian Codd, said after the tragedy the question of how far laws went in pursuit of a failsafe system around victim safety could be a vexing one for the broader community.
“I guess we can come up with systems that almost prevent this 100%... things like, in these serious matters, people could either be kept in custody or wear electronic bracelets or what have you,” Codd told the Guardian.
“Of course, that demands a response entity that’s going to be monitoring those and be in a position to respond should it be broken and you hope in quick enough time to be able to prevent a tragedy.
“But do we, as a community and a broader society, want to go down that path, because that would be incredibly, restrictive, draconian, resource intensive. How far are we prepared to go?”
The reality of most violence on the Gold Coast and elsewhere was that it occurred in the home and this demanded cultural change, Codd said.
“Fifty percent of assaults that go on in the Gold Coast at the moment, we’re measuring as domestic-related, and 32% of the other assaults are behind closed doors,” Codd said.
“When police get involved it’s often all too late because that’s when you’ve had the episode of violence or stress.
“What we want to do is invest time and energy in education and that’s families, bringing children up with respect and us as a community abhorring violence, not accepting it.”
Kara Cook, the director of Cook Legal, the first private expert domestic violence law firm in Australia, said the tragedy underlined the need for both specialised domestic violence courts and judicial training in risk indicators like strangulation.
“As people who work in this field know, strangulation is one of the high risk factors for lethality and it’s important that magistrates and the judiciary more broadly are trained in being aware of those factors,” she said.
“I’m aware this is training that has been conducted for magistrates previously and it’s essential that that continues. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, it appears there were risk factors there but that the court ultimately determined that he was to be released.”
Cook said more specialist domestic violence courts slated for Queensland this year needed to be rolled out “as a priority”.
“Ultimately women are being murdered and alarmingly the majority of these murders are by men and there is a culture in our society of violence against women.”
The Queensland government will this year fund three new domestic violence risk assessment teams in Logan, Cherbourg and Mount Isa, with another eight on the cards.
Taylor said there was a team on the Gold Coast run by police but, without a formal role in the court process, there would remain a “missing link”.
“Hopefully this would bring some type of different response within the courts around bail – without bringing a blanket ‘no bail’ – but on how we respond to high risk domestic violence,” Taylor said.
She said blanket bail restrictions could dissuade Indigenous women, for example, from reporting domestic violence given historical concerns about deaths in custody.
