Mr Nicholson,who served as chief justice from 1988 until his retirement in 2004,said police also needed to be taught to look for covert emotional and non-physical violence when investigating cases of domestic abuse.
His experience assessing hundreds of cases showed him that coercive control often fed into physical violence,as well as other crimes like destroying property,and that criminalisation would allow police to look beyond a single event to a pattern of behaviour.
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“Certainly I think the pattern of shutting someone off from their friends and relatives is a very common feature of that sort of behaviour. And I think it's one of the more frightening ones because (victims) become too scared to seek help,’’ he said.
“Police need a lot more training in the dangers of that. They’re inclined to dismiss it unless something overt has happened;unless there’s been some incident to cause the problem.’’
His comments support those of domestic violence experts,such as author Jess Hill,Deakin University academic Paul McGorrery and several victim support groups,who have been lobbying for change.
They come ahead of a story to be published in this Saturday's Good Weekend which explores the coercive control Brisbane man Rowan Baxter waged against his 31-year-old wife Hannah Clarke before setting her and their three young children alight in February,killing them all.