Ignored protection orders 'nightmare'

The number of protection orders issued in the Masterton District Court jumped from 40 in 2008 to 60 in 2012.

Protection-order breaches are rising in Wairarapa, with many women reluctant to enforce orders through the courts.

Wairarapa Women's Refuge manager Lyn Buckley said it was "a bit of a nightmare" for women having to go to court for repeated breaches, and many simply did not bother.

"As a person that's going through that stuff - who wants to sit in a courtroom unless you really, really have to?" she said.

"All of the hard work has to go on to the women and that's not fair, it's not right."

The number of protection orders issued in the Masterton District Court jumped from 40 in 2008 to 60 in 2012.

The number of breaches increased during that time from 33 to 56, and breach conviction doubled from 20 to 40.

Ms Buckley said many domestic-violence offenders breached orders by texting victims, or making unscheduled visits to their children.

While protection orders were a useful tool for police and deterrent for some offenders - "some people take notice of them, [and] some don't".

"A lot of women that are killed - the protection order's not going to save her."

Last week it was reported that shearer Anthony Maia Reiri, 31, had been sentenced to two months' home detention when he appeared in the Masterton District Court over breaching an order.

Reiri had breached a protection order twice and threatened to show his partner's underwear to everyone in the street.

He will go to jail if convicted of another breach.

The number of protection orders imposed nationwide during the last five years increased by 14 per cent to 3507, Justice Ministry figures show.

In total there were 3005 breaches recorded during 2012.

Convictions for breaches of court-ordered and police-imposed protection orders increased almost 10 per cent over the past five years, reaching more than 1900 last year.

Despite the figures, Justice Minister Judith Collins said she was confident the system was working.

Family law expert Ruth Busch, a former associate law professor at Waikato University and co-author of the 2007 state-funded Living At the Cutting Edge report on protection orders, told the Times-Age tougher penalties were needed to protect vulnerable women, children and even men.

At the moment, the maximum sentence for breaching a protection order is two years' imprisonment. The Government's plans to reform family law, headed by Ms Collins, would extend this to three years.

However, Ms Busch said protection order breaches should attract cumulative sentences to provide more of a deterrent.

"If I breach once, or I breach 13 times, they will [now] sentence concurrently, so the next 12 times after my breach is just a freebie," she said.

Ms Collins said the high rate of convictions showed the courts treated protection-order breaches seriously. APNZ