There must be an interesting back story to this. White Knight Boshier takes office as Chief Ombudsman and within a short time existing Ombudsman Ron Paterson resigns the position two years before the end of his term.

With Boshier in charge of protecting the rights of NZers in dealings with the state, men may well be deprived of one avenue of possible support previously available to them. Boshier has made a goal to speed up decisions on complaints and it seems likely that his intended methods for doing so have not met Paterson’s approval. We might expect that men’s official complaints about poor treatment in so-called ‘child support’ reviews, Family Court and other government agencies that believe it’s ok to discriminate against those with a penis will be dismissed in more cursory fashion. That should get the Ombudsman case clearance rate up! Of course, women’s official complaints can be expected to achieve considerably greater support. Esteemed law professors who uphold the law as faithfully as possible may well have no place in the new order.

We have previously expressed our opinion that it’s highly inappropriate to appoint to Ombudsman a person who has a demonstrated history of discrimination against men, as Boshier does both in his refusal to meet with fathers’ groups when Principal Family Court Judge and then even more blatantly by heading the White Fibbin’ ‘anti-violence’ Campaign that deliberately excludes concern for men, the most frequent victims of violence.

All views of DV are derived from this DULUTH model and it is lazy and wrong that NZ universities are still pushing this crap. All social services and courts are influenced by this as well. In its early days it may have had a positive purpose but not in today’s world where we KNOW MUCH MUCH MORE about the causes of DV.

This experimental program, conducted in Duluth University, Minnesota in 1981, coordinated the actions of a variety of agencies dealing with domestic conflict. The Duluth model curriculum was developed by a “small group of activists in the battered women’s movement” with 5 battered women and 4 men as subjects. The program has become a model for programs in other jurisdictions seeking to deal more effectively with domestic violence.

For an in-depth understanding of DV in THIS CENTURY please read this entire paper below and digest it……

Dr Jane Wangmann
Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney. VIOLENCE – AN EXPLORATION OF THE LITERATURE

Whilst it is now 5 years old it is much more relevant and unbiased as the DELUTH model.

The next time you hear from some half witted person rabbiting on about a subject they know little about you will be in a position to educate them with the TRUTH.

Not sure if anyone had read this family violence review/ submission? Every statement is all “her” “she” and it’s absolutely rubbish!

Link below from the NZ psychological society website. Their submission and review of the DV act 1995.

PDF link: Family violence Law Review Submission .

Just thought sharing this,

Every Without notice aplication will take on average 16 mins for a judge to decide ? Of course everytime new judge and they don’t have any background of the manipulations and alienation history.

13,543 applications for the year and numbers increasing.

https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/latest-news/news/without-notice-family-court-judicial-time-316-hoursmonth

“Without notice” Family Court judicial time 316 hours/month

15 June 2016

Judges together spent an average of 316 hours a month dealing with “without notice” applications in the Family Court in the year to 30 April 2016.

With a total of 13,543 such applications over the year https://aucasinosonline.com/nz/, this means that Family Court Judges spent an average of 16 minutes and 48 seconds on each application.

Justice Minister Amy Adams has released information on judicial time spent on “without notice” applications in response to a parliamentary question from Labour MP Louisa Wall.

Releasing the information, Ms Adams said judicial time dealing with “without notice” applications has been interpreted as the hours spent on e-Duty events by Judges.

Judicial time spent dealing with “without notice” applications in Family Court

Event Month Guardianship (Care of Children Act) All Family Court case types
Judicial time (hours) Events Judicial time (hours) Events
May 2015 172 687 297 1193
June 2015 149 580 263 1008
July 2015 177 663 311 1131
August 2015 164 621 297 1110
September 2015 189 695 374 1183
October 2015 174 659 298 1150
November 2015 160 646 273 1107
December 2015 169 653 293 1136
January 2016 165 576 259 918
February 2016 332 760 465 1235
March 2016 208 755 376 1283
April 2016 164 630 286 1089
Total 2223 7925 3792 13543
Average/Month 185.3 660.4 316.0 1128.6

This NZ Herald story headline question must be rehtorical because everyone knows that there are no ‘good men’. If the reporter were to ask me why I am absent from groups where women frequent then I would answer that I avoid them like the plague. During my 50’s my brain trajectory headed upward nearly a meter and now sits in a place where evolutionary pressures no longer have influence.

Hence, I don’t mix with people who annoy me with their mundane chitter chatter about how lovely it is to share their life with their children whom they most probably brought up to disrespect the father. I don’t want to hear how they are shopping for lovely things knowing that the chances are they are squandering money that they acquired off the ex by stealth. I discovered that most women are narcissistic predators with men being the predominant victim.

Sound like a misogynist talking? Well that depends on your definition. The etymology is such that if you speak the truth about what most women have become today you get that label attached to you as a way of silencing your opinion. However, if you are looking for an answer to the question then my answer comes from my life experience and where women’s attitudes have taken me thus far. Give me a bunch of blokes keen on a motor bike ride any day….life is beautiful (without women) 🙂

This new provision has come into law through the Coroners Amendment Act passed today. It may be positive in drawing the public’s attention to the high suicide rate, and it may improve the public’s recognition of the plight of so many men in particular who feel so hated and worthless in the feminist era that they kill themselves at almost four times the rate that women do. However, there is a good chance that news media will continue to cover up this gender issue in the same way that they cover up men’s sacrifice in work roles, by failing to mention the gender of victims unless female. It’s important that editors and journalists are challenged strongly whenever they do this.

Hi,
We have an administrative review next week and I was looking for some information/case file evidence if anyone can help? The review is under Ground 8 and based on “Capacity to Earn” instead of true financial earnings. Has anyone had any experience with this in the past and would you mind sharing the situation and outcome? The more prepared we are before we go in the better I feel! I really don’t trust admin reviews and have had them turn ugly in the past. Any support, guidance or past experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I do not understand it…..but someone else may be interested and understand it. The one thing that got me was…”This includes assessments the Commissioner makes as a result of a voluntary agreement entered into by parties.”

IRD Child Support Reviews

Bear witness in love to drive out hate so that they may see the error of their ways and come to the peace that only he can bring

To all those trying to bring peace, please don’t give up. In the end the victory of peace over conflict is assured. Many who have heard of the recent events have said I should post them here to encourage others. (more…)

Well done this Judge!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333549/Top-judge-says-mothers-children-taken-away-dont-let-fathers-them.html

Currently under New Zealand law section 128 which deals with sexual violation there are two options. Rape and unlawful sexual connection. Of the two only men can be charged with rape as it is defined as:

“(2) Person A rapes person B if person A has sexual connection with person B, effected by the penetration of person B’s genitalia by person A’s penis,—
(a) without person B’s consent to the connection; and
(b) without believing on reasonable grounds that person B consents to the connection.” (Crimes Act 1961)

The requirement of penetration by a penis excludes all women as rapists. We believe this is an unnecessary distinction and is inherently sexist. We would like to see the gender specific language, (penis), removed from this definition so that all rapists, regardless of gender can be charged with rape. (more…)

Today news that ‘among top researchers’ (whatever that means), men at NZ universities are three times more likely to be promoted to professor. Unfortunately there was no indication of this study on the web page of Ann Brower from Lincoln University who was interviewed as someone involved in the research, so it wasn’t possible to evaluate it. If this news release was done before the study was peer reviewed and published, that seems a bit irresponsible. (more…)

Although the tide is turning we are still bombarded by feminist propaganda through both commission and omission. Every time the pussy pass is given to a female offender this is an incident of misandry because it reflects greater punishment for men than for women for the same crimes.

This one is old but doesn’t seem to have been covered on MENZ Issues and definitely deserves to be. Sayonara Fa’amausili was centre manager of a preschool from which, over a four-year period, she stole almost $90,000. She claimed this was her boyfriend’s fault because he ‘persuaded’ her to offend, i.e. to commit the numerous acts of fraud over her long period of stealing. The judge (was it a female judge or a white-knight male?) was happy to accept this implausible story and to let Ms Fa’amausili shift blame for her behaviour on to a man. After all, that’s what men are for huh? So she was sentenced to 40 hours community work!

The Teachers’ Council swallowed the same tale and found her quite fit and proper enough to continue teaching and indeed being in control of yet another preschool centre. Simply beyond belief.
(more…)

This case received little attention in media but it is quite momentous as a development in the erosion of men’s basic human right to life and the elevation of women to an even more privileged class.

When her mother’s boyfriend Mr Watkins, apparently an unpleasant man with a propensity towards violence, became angry and ordered everyone out of the house while threatening them with a meat cleaver, Ms Daryl Kirk ran back into the house, up the stairs, grabbed a rifle and returned to fire six times at him, killing him with three hits. The woman judge decided this murder was good enough to be called ‘self-defence’ even though Ms Kirk could easily have escaped the place to keep herself safe, and her actions in getting the gun were almost certainly out of vengeful anger rather than self-preservation. So Ms Kirk was convicted of manslaughter, and slaughter him she had, for which she was sentenced to 12 months home detention. The learned judge was said to make reference to the Law Commission’s recommendation to legalize homicide of males by females, and apparently she decided that feminism was so important she she may as well apply this as if it were already law even though parliament has not yet passed it. Yeah, go girls!

Men’s lives, already treated as so disposable in employment, war and suicide, are in the process of becoming even more disposable. Don’t dare frighten any woman because she will then be allowed to murder you with minimal or no consequences. But unfortunately the same privilege won’t be given to frightened men. You can be sure that if you shot to death a woman threatening you with a lesser weapon, you won’t be allowed to attribute this to self-defence. Especially if you fire the gun six times and one of the bullets is in her back.

When are we going to speak up loud about NZ fathers’ suffering? and the institutional psychological abuse and torture done by the courts ?

i have been stuck in the family court since 10 years and still going and many like me, who are just good fathers ……… the same process starting again with protection order > parenting order > psychologists > counselors > mediation > breach of protection orders > parenting order variation > criminal court. Its a never-ending drama and once this dark cloud stuck over your head then your life will turn up like hell. Dealing with the courts is like TORTURE.

All Judges, lawyers and politicians are ignoring the brainwashing and parental alienation for the sake of keeping the gravy train going. We have fathers who are committing suicide, hurting themselves, losing their jobs and careers, going mental, not seeing their children and their children are brainwashed and programmed against them …..etc. We hear everyday horrible heartbreaking stories about so many fathers who are victims of the corrupt family court.

What are we doing about it ?

Would love to hear from the MENZ website group members, what are they up to ? Any plans ? We have a powerful digital tools, like social media, websites and internet. Old days they the marketing options were very limited, so thats why it was really hard to get good numbers of people to protest.

We are a group of serious fathers/Men working on a organizing a peaceful protest at Auckland District Court soon and we need fathers who got balls to speak up loud and want really to be part of it. We are targeting 100+ members for the protest. It will happen in the next couple of months, we will market the protest all over the social media.

Also we looking for a team of fathers from NZ nationwide, to help raising the awareness of Men abuse in NZ over the social media by commenting and posting on some Facebook pages, also help in collecting some data over the internet from specific websites related to men and fathers rights. The media and all the government DV marketing campaigns are targeting men and blaming them for the family violence in NZ. Its only an hour everyday, but an hour everyday will make a difference.

Please email me with your details at [email protected], we have a closed group on Facebook and feel free to join.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/251761925197931/

Cheers

Zayne

This Bill Maher video knows how to package up a stinging subject with great humour……

Hi Dads,

There is hope.

1154 days since my wife absconded and abducted my son to another man, full custody and care and control of my (nearly) 4 year old son was given to me by the Court.

To stay in the struggle to win my son, I lost my daughter, my company, my airplane, all my money, house, car, furniture and possessions, became unemployed for 9 months, and have fallen some $61,000 into debt.

Without the support of many, including those here on this forum it would have been impossible to continue. Thank you all.

Please continue to support each other.
Support is invaluable.

Strength for today, Bright Hope for tomorrow.
Yours faithfully,
Paul and Air

According to this article in the NZ Herald, coroners only rule suicide when it’s very clear the person intended to take ‘their’ own life. Otherwise, deaths are classified in a different category such as ‘accident’, or the cause will go down as undetermined, an ‘open verdict’.

Of course, the Herald’s article failed completely to mention the gender aspect of suicides or what three times the rate would mean for already huge male suicide rates. This is the same newspaper that recently published a series of articles on domestic violence as if such violence almost exclusively happens to women by men (when in fact non-partner domestic violence happens much more to men and when all domestic violence is included men suffer about 45% of it and women 55%). So when it comes to domestic violence that marginally affects women more than men, the Herald specifically quotes female victim statistics and treats the issue as mainly a problem affecting women, whereas for suicide that overwhelmingly affects men, no mention of gender is considered important. Typical feminist sexism and duplicity.

Saturdays Stuff article focused on suicide. In particular a 10 year old boy whom I won’t mention here. The article written by Laura Walters did not have a comment area.

One graph compared male to female suicides. In any given year male suicides each year are say 400+ while female suicides are about the 140 mark. There was no comment in the article about this.

So why do men kill themselves at a rate of 3 to 1.

The government says all suicide is a mental health matter. It comes under the ministry of health.

I see it as men have less protection than woman under the law and are treated more harshly.

• Men don’t have a say if their female partner wants to abort their unborn baby.
• If a man is bashed by his female partner. The man is usually arrested and not allowed to return to his own home.
• Men are much more likely to be barred from seeing their children if they are separated from their female partner.
• Men have their names released in the media if on trial for rape. Even sometimes before charges are laid.
• It is usually a man who loses much of his hard earned accumulated wealth in a divorce.
• It is usually a man who has to pay the woman child maintenance and the woman who does not have to work. On this point I could add that the ex female partner may be seeing a new man while the first man has to pay for it.
• If a man commits a crime his sentence can be twice or three times that of a womans.
• If a woman destroys a mans life by lying about being raped and she is found guilty. She is just usually charged with wasting police time or receives a very low penalty.
• If a man is found not guilty of rape he is likely to still, lose his job, his partner, family, friends, house (trying to pay for a defense), his savings, his future. He will have a mark against him and will not be able to apply for some types of jobs. There is no compensation for men being found not guilty of rape but there is compensation for a woman regardless if the man was found guilty or not. You just have to start from zero again.

These are just a few examples. I’m sure you can think of a few more.

And in recent days we witness a new law being drafted that will allow a woman to murder a man in his sleep if they think he may harm them.

So the question is….. Is suicide a male mental health problem?

I think suicide is not a male mental health problem. It is an abuse or unfairness problem. “It is a lets not consider the man.” Its a lets make it hard, unlikely or just plain impossible for a man to recover his life. It is a lets make the man pay for everything. Lets cut him down and destroy him. Even when he is not guilty. Or his ex wife just does not want him in his children’s life anymore because it may complicate her life or she just wants to get at him. Lets let the man watch his children being raised by another man. Yes that will get him really good.

It is the grief, anguish, heartache and distress caused by unequal laws and the unrealistic burdens placed on men who are often the victims but are never seen as such.

Men don’t need a 0800 phone number to call if they feel like killing themselves. They just need fairness and the be treated reasonably and justly.

But that is not going to happen anytime soon. What is going to happen is there are thousands of men going though crap right now and 400 of them are going to kill themselves over the next 12 months because they don’t want to live an unhappy life with no chance of getting ahead.

Angelina Jolie Pitt will be joining the London School of Economics as a visiting professor to teach a new master’s degree course.

As well as delivering guest lectures to students in the autumn of 2016, Jolie Pitt will be running workshops, public events, and carrying out her own research.

WOW! Angelina Jolie is an undergraduate who did not even complete a degree. However, who needs a degree to teach when the subject is a belief system? A belief that women are paid less than men. A belief that DV is only a male to female issue, and so on. That is why so many religious teachers/preachers have no degrees or in fact any higher education at all. What matters most is just that you believe what you preach. No empirical evidence just a lot of clap trap and emotion required. In my opinion ‘Gender Studies’ is a sham and the London School of Economics, by employing Jolie, has the same credibility as David X. Li and his Gaussian Copula function

The article here by a woman in OZ tells a story I’ve suspected for years…

http://relatingtomen.com/blog/smoke-mirrors-violence-women/

It doesn’t even start on the millions spent in Womens refuges, nor does it count the amounts spent on or by maternity wards, midwives, plunket and CYFs actively excluding fathers from their childrens lives, mainly based on the myths that are propagated by the likes of white ribbon…

Does anyone have the time to build a table of money spent on DV in NZ?
I’m really keen to help present the amounts spent excluding dads…

A new study shows how pseudo-victims’ claims differ to those of true victims.

Last week, the Irish Independent reported that a former nun named Nora Wall, who was wrongfully convicted of rape and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999, would receive over €500,000 in compensation.

Wall’s case was especially shocking, because the prosecution used a witness whom the Director of Public Prosecutions had said should not be called. Yet the prosecution went ahead and called the witness, whose fabricated tale succeeded in convicting Wall.

In one sense, Wall was fortunate. She had only served four days of her sentence, when she was released on bail. The witness admitted lying. In 2005, the Court of Criminal Appeal certified that Wall’s conviction was a miscarriage of justice, opening the way for a damages action against the state.

Wall is not the only nun to be falsely accused. Sr Domenica Ritchie is a 73-year-old Anglican nun, who won acclaim for her work in the hospice movement. She was awarded the OBE in 2006. Yet in 2013, when Savile mania was at its height, two women accused her of indecently assaulting them in Oxford in the 1970s. They did not go to the police but, as often happens, an officious third party reported their claims. Sr Domenica was arrested, but in 2014 the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was no basis for charging her.

Why do some people make false allegations, which wreak such havoc in the lives of innocent people? Filing false vice reports, a recent Dutch study published in April this year, offers some much-needed clarity. Motives for false allegations include revenge, attention-seeking and compensation.

The authors (André De Zutter, Robert Horselenberg and Peter van Koppen) undertook a bold piece of research. They decided to commission false allegations of rape, and compare them with victims’ accounts in real cases, where men had been convicted. ‘The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool’, they say, quoting from Stephen King’s Needful Things.

They propose a new theory of fabricated rape. Their hypothesis is that pseudo-victims have to construct stories based on their own experiences and beliefs about rape. They will construct a stereotypical story that does not resemble a true rape. They will tend to rely on representations of rape in news media, which tended to be biased and often lack details. Typically, the media cover sensational and atypical rapes.

A pseudo-victim will also likely create a rapist whose conduct does not fit typical offender categories. In brief: the four typical rapist profiles are ‘opportunist, pervasively angry, sexual, and vindictive’. Typical rapist behaviours can include such things as attempts at pseudo-intimacy, or stealing from the victim. These sorts of behaviour are often absent from media reports of rape. By contrast, the proportion of rape stereotypes is typically higher in false allegations of rape.

So how do false and true allegations of rape differ? Typically the false report will provide a concise story with little details. The research used a control group (consisting of likely true allegations) and two experimental groups where participants were invited to invent a rape accusation. The study used 187 variables (specific rapist behaviours) to test the veracity of the stories it collected.

The cohort comprised 65 allegations, of which 30 were likely true and 35 likely false. Half of the false category were given three days to prepare their story, while the rest were given 30 minutes. Participants were screened for having experienced unpleasant sexual encounters: those who had were excluded from the study, as were true rape victims. The participants who were accepted were then interviewed using the same protocol as that used with an actual complainant in a Dutch police unit.

The results were both instructive and intriguing. True victims were twice as likely to give details – and give them spontaneously – than pseudo-victims. True victims described a lot of verbal interaction with their rapist, most of which fitted the rapist profiles mentioned earlier (eg, sadistic rapists were insulting). They also described a wide variety of sexual acts and positions. True victims engaged in evidence-conserving activities (such as not showering), while pseudo-victims did the opposite.

The authors conclude that four main characteristics of false allegations stand out. First, the alleged rape is always swift – almost all cases were completed in less than 15 minutes. Second, the pseudo-victim is passive, and their narrative does not include a variety of sexual acts. Third, false allegations mostly include instrumental violence, and almost no expressive violence (eg, unnecessary hurting during sex). ‘False complainants seem to be aware that it is the era of forensic evidence. Bruises and scratches without foreign DNA might put their credibility on the line.’ Finally, pseudo-victims offer a more detailed description of their attacker’s personal appearance than real ones do. For some reason, false complainants described the nose of the fabricated offender more than genuine victims.

Anything that can assist in screening out false complaints of sex crime is of great importance. No one benefits when the innocent are wrongly accused. The present problem in Britain is that police and prosecutors have been captured by the believe-the-victim mindset. Seeking out sex criminals – especially elderly ones (and sometimes even dead ones) – has become a grotesque 21st-century illustration of Parkinson’s Law – that a bureaucracy will generate enough work to keep itself ‘busy’ and to justify its continued existence.

One defence lawyer has said that 70 per cent of cases in Crown Courts now are sex cases. The CPS (65 per cent of whose workforce is female) evidently has no concept of age discrimination. It zealously prosecutes offenders ranging in age from 12 to 101. This is madness. It has nothing to do with the public interest. Britain’s prisons are overcrowded, and increasingly unsafe.

So what’s to be done? The police need to be more rigorous in their questioning of complainants. In particular, adult complainants should not be treated like tender youngsters. It is troubling to learn that in a recent case in Cirencester, which collapsed on the first day of trial, the policeman in charge was a confidant of the complainant, even interviewing her in her bedroom. Second, the CPS must drop their biased outlook, which assumes that all complainants are victims. Its Toolkit for Prosecutors on Violence Against Women and Girls Cases Involving a Vulnerable Victim is typical of this mindset. The eight-page document uses the word ‘victim’ 39 times, and ‘victims’ nine times. Both agencies need to acquire some objectivity, instead of acting as allies of our current victim culture. And they must stop being the useful tools of those who make false allegations.

Barbara Hewson is a barrister. Her views here are personal.

Admittedly a foreign diplomat, none the less a Dad whose children were in NZ has been deprived of his rights due to a collusion between the police and the family court….

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/80199895/desperate-diplomat-dad-incident-an-embarrassment-to-new-zealand

The population of NZ is becoming much better informed and aware of the b.s. that has been driving gender relations and law for 5 decades now. Occasional articles are starting to appear using reason and fact to challenge the bias, hyperbole and falsehood spread by feminists. Whereas even five years ago many readers’ comments had clearly swallowed the feminist lines and dissenting comments were rare, a large proportion of comments now are seeing what we here have long seen. The eyes of the nation are beginning to open and once that happens it becomes difficult to keep avoiding the truth.
This article today was an example, by Matt Heath discussing some of the impacts of male-bashing and anti-male indoctrination especially of women. Just read the comments, many men and even a few women recognizing the issues.

The politicians are still well behind the 8-ball but we sense they are starting to watch their step a bit. Judith Collins on TV1 News last night was in Europe checking out some of their approaches to family violence, and she was very careful to talk about ‘family members’ and other gender neutral terms in discussing the matter.

The Law Commission is clearly well out of touch, still heavily brainwashed by White Knight Peter Boshier and his fan club of man-haters. Their latest travesty will be but one of many feminist atrocities in their retreat. They will leave as many land mines and cause as much harm as possible in their anger at having the truth forced on them.

Keep up the good work.

Victims of family violence who kill their abusers should be able to claim self-defence more easily, the Law Commission says.

The commission’s report on family violence laws, requested by the Government, has recommended lowering the threshold for self-defence to help women who “have endured years of trauma and abuse”.

In its report, the Law Commission said New Zealand had the highest reported rate of family violence in the developed world.
Justice Minister Amy Adams says the Law Commission’s recommendation would be “a significant departure” from current laws.
KIRK HARGREAVES / FAIRFAX NZ

Justice Minister Amy Adams says the Law Commission’s recommendation would be “a significant departure” from current laws.

The commission has recommended changing the law to state that self-defence can apply when a person is responding to family violence – even when the threat is not “imminent”, as currently must be the case.

READ MORE:
* New family violence offences considered
* ‘Underbelly of abuse’ in NZ
* Govt puts microscope on ‘horrific’ domestic violence rates
* Domestic violence victims need more support
* Amy Adams: We can turn the tide on family violence
* Outdated attitudes not helping family violence victims – report

Lead commissioner Dr Wayne Mapp said there were some “deeply-held myths” about family violence, such as that those being abused could simply walk away.
Family violence victims who kill their abusers are often defending themselves after “years of trauma and abuse”, the Law …
FAIRFAX NZ

Family violence victims who kill their abusers are often defending themselves after “years of trauma and abuse”, the Law Commission says.

“The reality is family violence in many cases is part of an ongoing, sustained, vicious pattern of violence that traps the person.

“That entrapment means she cannot leave, and that then means she ultimately, for fear of her life, or that of her children, sees no other way out but to defend herself with lethal force.”

Mapp said New Zealand’s self-defence laws were “out of step” with countries like the UK and Australia, and there was “ample evidence” that women convicted here of manslaughter or murder should have been acquitted for acting in self defence due to family violence.

He did not believe changing the law would lead to people using family violence as an excuse for premeditated murder, saying it would be up to juries to decide whether a self-defence claim was believable.
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The law change could allow a woman to kill her sleeping partner and claim self-defence, if she made a “believable” case of family violence.

“Such a claim would only be successful if it existed in the context of a sustained long period of family violence, and if you didn’t do that then, the next thing going to happen to you is that you were going to be killed instead.”

‘A TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCE OF FAMILY VIOLENCE’

Other recommendations in the report were:

* Allowing a broader range of evidence about family violence to support claims of self-defence.

* Ensuring “consistent consideration” of a history of family violence as a mitigating factor during sentencing.

* Continuing to educate judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers about family violence.

* Reviewing the “three strikes” law and how it affects victims of family violence.

Women’s Refuge New Zealand chief executive Ange Jury said the self-defence proposal was “a good move forward”, given what victims of family violence had to deal with.

“It’s been likened to a form of terrorism, and I don’t think that’s going too far…unless you’ve actually been there, I don’t think anyone can know what that feels like.”

However, Jury said the most important recommendation was educating those in the justice system about the nature of family violence.

“Unless the people administering the law have a really good, sound understanding of what domestic violence is, what it looks like, what it does, it’s not going to be administered properly anyway.”

‘WE HAVE TO BE INCREDIBLY CAREFUL’

Justice Minister Amy Adams said she welcomed the Law Commission’s “comprehensive” report, which the Government had asked it to prioritise.

“A terrible consequence of family violence is that some victims are driven to killing their abusers – as a result of often years of abuse.”

Adams said the Law Commission’s proposals would be “a significant departure” from the current laws, and would need “careful thought and discussion”.

“We have to be incredibly careful – letting someone off killing another human being is an incredibly serious thing to do.”

The recommendations would be considered as part of the Government’s work on family violence, she said.

VICTIMS WHO STRIKE BACK

The Law Commission has identified a number of New Zealand cases where victims of family violence who killed their abusers, including:

* Amanda Taitapanui: The 29-year-old was sentenced to 12 months of home detention in April for manslaughter after fatally stabbing her partner Mura Dean Tagatauli in the leg. A police summary about the killing said the couple had an “extensive family violence history”.

* Dale Wickham: In 2010, the 62-year-old was sentenced to 12 months home detention for manslaughter after killing her husband John Wickham. Her lawyer said at trial Wickham had put up with years of abuse from her husband, who had made threats to kill her by hitting her with a brick and putting her body in the pool to cover it up.

* Gay Oakes: In 1995, Oakes received a life sentence for murder after poisoning her partner Doug Gardner and burying him in the garden of their Christchurch home. Oakes was furious at the abuse he meted out to her and their children, but a partial defence of provocation failed at her trial.

Stuff article