Sydney WDVCAS, provides court-based advocacy and assistance to approximately 1,700 clients per year, with many of our clients reporting technology-facilitated abuse.
Technology is often used to intimidate, humiliate and silence them.
The types of technology-facilitated abuse reported by clients include:
- Tracking by use of GPS devices
- Monitoring or hacking email accounts
- The use of emails to impersonate our client or other persons
- The use of videos, often taken of private situations and sometimes with the consent of the client, but later used to blackmail the client
- The use of hidden cameras
- The use of technology to stalk or receive a client’s private information
- Monitoring or hacking of social media
Clients report that police are often unable or reluctant to investigate technology-facilitated abuse and there are difficulties associated with having charges successfully prosecuted.
There can be substantial costs involved in seeking access to technological data and it is also costly to seek expert evidence for prosecutions involving technology.
Jenny* had an AVO protecting her from her former partner. Jenny reported her former partner continued to stalk her and had recently assaulted her, but she was too afraid to report his behaviour to police. He had convinced her a friend of his, who he said was a police officer, was monitoring her by use of tracking devices, and accessing her email and social media communications. Jenny was too afraid to make any further reports to police as she feared her former partner would know immediately and carry out his threats to harm her or her family. |
Even when a defendant has been charged with abuse that involves technology, it can be difficult to prove the offence to the requisite standard; mainly because a defendant is readily able to refute the allegation that they were the person responsible.
Maria* was the subject of a number of different forms of technology-facilitated abuse from a former partner. Maria’s former partner was charged with a number of offences under the Criminal Code Act 1995 after NSW Police Force officers went to extraordinary lengths to gather evidence, including contracting a computer expert to investigate the source of certain documents and to give expert evidence in court. The defendant was found guilty in the Local Court, however he was able to successfully appeal the conviction in the District Court. |
The Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW) defines ‘stalking’ as including ‘the following of a person about or the watching or frequenting of the vicinity of, or an approach to, a person’s place of residence, business or work or any place that a person frequents for the purposes of any social or leisure’.
Although the legislation does not specifically mention technology-facilitated abuse, it can readily fall into the definition of stalking behaviour.
In addition, the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW) defines the meaning of ‘intimidation’ as ‘conduct amounting to harassment or molestation of the person, or and approach made to the person by any means (including by telephone, telephone text messaging, e-mailing and other technologically assisted means) that causes the person to fear for his or her safety…’
Maria’s case study demonstrates that the Criminal Code Act 1995 can be applied to meet the needs of victims of technology-facilitated abuse in the context of domestic violence.
There is relevant legislation to prosecute the crime. The difficulties lie with the inability to prove an offence to the requisite standard.
It is not hard for a defendant to create doubt about the actual source of technology-facilitated abuse.
And, where police have charged a defendant, the costs involved in proving the offence can be high enough to stop the case ever reaching a court.
Importantly there are some positive developments in this area. Women’s Legal Services NSW have developed additional conditions for AVOs to prevent online abuse. We have had some success with these conditions.
As part of the $100 million package announced by the Prime Minister on 25 September, $5 million will be allocated to safer technology for women, including the development of a resource package about online safety for women.
* Names have been changed to protect the identity of our clients.
