Author: FLC Admin

Samantha’s ex-partner isolated and abused her. He’s the first man in NSW to serve jail time for coercive control | SMH

In January 2025, he was arrested and charged with coercive control, along with stalking and six AVO breaches. From jail, he continued to contact Samantha, writing letters and sending them to his mother to pass on.

Court records described Fairleigh having an “utter disregard” for bail conditions and the AVO. Police argued he presented an “unreasonable risk” to Samantha and other women, noting he was still active on the dating app Bumble.

Before his 2025 arrest, he had been subject to AVOs protecting Samantha and charged with twice breaching this AVO, and twice assaulting Samantha and damaging her property, though these charges were dismissed. He previously pleaded guilty to one assault charge and two financial deception charges relating to other victims.

Fairleigh’s sentence is the first to result in jail time. With time served, he will be released on parole in April.

Two-thirds of coercive control incidents were accompanied by another offence, including stalking, domestic assault or malicious damage. The most common controlling behaviour was harassment, monitoring or tracking.

In 97 per cent of intimate partner domestic violence homicides cases, the victim had experienced coercive and controlling behaviours before being killed.

Source: Samantha’s ex-partner isolated and abused her. He’s the first man in NSW to serve jail time for coercive control

A new minister in Victoria will tackle the manosphere. Here’s what they should do | The Conversation

Victoria has its first minister for men and boys. Part of a cabinet reshuffle, the role was given to Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke.

It comes with an explicit dual focus: on one hand, boys’ and men’s own wellbeing, and on the other, the harms boys and men perpetrate.

The role has also been signalled as being a response to the influence of online misogynistic cultures, including the manosphere.

Edbrooke’s new role represents the only formal cabinet-level “minister for men and boys” in Australia.

There have been calls from some men’s health advocates for such a role to be established federally. For example, Dan Repacholi was appointed by the federal government to be Australia’s first Special Envoy for Men’s Health in 2025.

Victoria has previously included a Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change. The Coalition in New South Wales also announced earlier this year the establishment of a new portfolio dedicated to men’s health ahead of the 2027 state election.

But Victoria is the first government to identify “men and boys” as a distinct policy category, signalling that the influences shaping misogynist attitudes requires focused attention.

Source: A new minister in Victoria will tackle the manosphere. Here’s what they should do

Half of women suicide victims linked to domestic violence | The Courier Mail

Up to half of all women who take their own lives have been impacted by domestic violence, shocking new research reveals.Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety also found children who grew up around violence were more likely to self-harm, while domestic violence offenders were using threats of suicide as a tactic of coercive control.

The alarming research – submitted to the federal government’s parliamentary inquiry into the relationship between domestic, family and sexual violence and suicide – comes as Queensland police charged 92 offenders with coercive control against 219 victims since the new law came into effect in May last year.

The organisation’s research found 15 women die by suicide each week in Australia, and up to 56 per cent of those women had been a victim of domestic violence.

Source: Half of women suicide victims linked to domestic violence | The Courier Mail

SPAIN: Prolific Serial Killer Transitions While Serving 127-Year Sentence, Is Now Being Held In A Women’s Unit – Reduxx

One of Spain’s most prolific serial killers is now being held in a women’s correctional unit after beginning to identify as transgender while behind bars. Joan Vila Dilmé, also known as the Olot nursing home killer, is reportedly now going by the name “Aida.”

Vila, 60, was sentenced to 127 years in prison in 2013 for the murders of 11 elderly residents at the care home he worked at.

During their report, the mainstream Spanish paper referred to Vila in the feminine, and attempted to minimize any allegations that this was done in order to gain any special treatment, arguing “her transition does not entail any benefits related to her sentence.”

As of now, he has yet to undergo any surgical alterations, but reportedly has plans to do so. His “gender-affirming” cosmetic surgeries will be paid for by Spain’s public healthcare system.

Source: SPAIN: Prolific Serial Killer Transitions While Serving 127-Year Sentence, Is Now Being Held In A Women’s Unit – Reduxx

Lesbian Action Group Inc v Australian Human Rights Commission [2026] FCA 432

DISCRIMINATION LAW – sex discrimination – exemption power – where the applicant applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission for an exemption from the prohibitions on discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) so that it could hold public events for “lesbians born female” only – where the Commission refused the application for the exemption – where the Tribunal affirmed the decision to refuse to grant the exemption – whether the Tribunal erred in its construction of the exemption power – whether the Tribunal erred by failing to comply with the duty in s 10A of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) – appeal allowed

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1.    The appeal be allowed.

2.    The decision of the Administrative Review Tribunal dated 20 January 2025 be set aside.

3.    The matter be remitted to the Administrative Review Tribunal (differently constituted) for determination according to law.

4.    Within seven days, the parties provide any agreed minute of order as to costs.

5.    If the parties cannot agree, then within 14 days each party file and serve a short submission on costs, and within a further 7 days each party file any short responding submission on costs, and the issue of costs then be determined on the papers.

Source: Lesbian Action Group Inc v Australian Human Rights Commission [2026] FCA 432

New laws close the door on domestic violence loophole – Yahoo News Australia

Violent offenders showing up to their former residence and terrorising their ex-partner will no longer get off on a technicality.

NSW is introducing laws that penalise perpetrators for breaking and entering into a home where domestic violence victim survivors live, regardless of whether the abuser has their name on a lease or is a joint owner.

It comes after a controversial High Court decision in 2023 ruled in favour of a defendant who kicked in the triple-locked door of his former partner’s home and assaulted her.

In a 4-3 decision, the court found the offender had a lawful authority to enter the apartment he was jointly leasing, regardless of whether the woman wanted him to and despite him having moved out months earlier.

Changes will also ensure an accused person will no longer be considered an occupant of a residence if a restraining order, a court order, a bail condition or parole stops them from living at the home.

The High Court judgment known as BA v The King related to a man who stormed his former partner’s home near Canberra in July 2019.

He grabbed the woman inside by the shoulders, shouted at her and threw her phone on the floor as she tried to call for help.

He pleaded guilty to common assault, intimidation and destruction of property in the NSW District Court, but contested the aggravated break and enter charge.

His acquittal on that charge by the District Court sparked a successful Crown appeal and orders for a retrial, only for the man to win his appeal in the highest court in Australia.

Source: New laws close the door on domestic violence loophole – Yahoo News Australia

Federal Court upholds appeal by lesbian group seeking single-sex event exemption | The Australian

A lesbian advocacy group has had a victory in its legal battle to exclude transwomen from its single sex public events, after the Federal Court upheld its appeal against a ruling by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

In a decision which may have significant implications for the interpretation of Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, Federal Court Judge Mark Moshinsky found the first two grounds of the Lesbian Action Group’s appeal had been made out, and that it was therefore not necessary to make a judgment on the third and fourth grounds.

Justice Moshinsky ordered that the Administrative Review Tribunal set aside its previous dismissal of the group’s appeal, and that a differently constituted tribunal reconsider the matter.

LAG had sought a five-year exemption under the Sex Discrimination Act to hold “lesbians born female only” public events, and appealed to the ART, and subsequently the Federal Court when it was refused by the AHRC.

Wednesday’s verdict is likely to have implications for the Tickle vs. Giggle case, which is also currently before the Federal Court and involves transgender woman Roxanne Tickle, who successfully sued start-up founder Sall Grover over her women-only social media app, Giggle for Girls.

Shaken by their pasts, inter-country adoptees demand federal government broaden inquiry scope – ABC News

In short:

The federal government is being urged to broaden a new inquiry into a South Korean adoption program found to have a history of corruption and fraud.

Behind the push are numerous inter-country adoptees who arrived in Australia from the 1970s onwards as international adoption grew in popularity.

But many later learned stories about their biological parents were false or parts of their adoption paperwork had been fabricated.

Source: Shaken by their pasts, inter-country adoptees demand federal government broaden inquiry scope – ABC News

Parents claim they destroyed healthy IVF embryos after being misled by N.J. genetic testing companies – nj.com

Hackettstown-based Genomic Prediction and Livingston-based Cooper Genomics face federal class action lawsuits alleging false advertising of PGT-A embryo testing.

Allison Freeman, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said patients purchase the testing because it’s sold as having “high percentages of accuracy.”

The testing, which is rarely covered by insurance, is offered as an optional add-on during the IVF process. Although it’s marketed as increasing pregnancy and live birth rates, major medical organizations have stated that further research is necessary to establish its value.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine published a practice guideline in 2018 concluding “there is insufficient evidence to recommend the routine use of preimplantation genetic testing-aneuploidy in all infertile women.”

Despite this, the proportion of IVF cycles using PGT-A increased from 14% in 2014 to 44% in 2019, according to national data from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.

Source: Parents claim they destroyed healthy IVF embryos after being misled by N.J. genetic testing companies – nj.com

UK man who sexually abused girl has visa reinstated over ‘strong ties’ to Australia – ABC News

A British man who sexually abused a nine-year-old girl has had his Australian permanent visa reinstated by a tribunal, after it was automatically cancelled following his conviction.

The Administrative Review Tribunal reversed the cancellation due to his “ill health” and “strong ties” to Australia.

Contacted by the ABC, the man said: “Well, I’ve got my visa back, so it’s all good”, as the victim’s family calls for the decision to be overturned.

The man, who has lived in Australia for several decades, had also been charged in relation to the sexual abuse of a young boy, but was acquitted by a jury.

The mother of that boy, Linda*, said she and the young girl’s families were both “horrified” to learn he had avoided deportation.

“[We were] completely let down, completely betrayed,” she told the ABC.

“His needs were put before the victim’s, before the community … why are we giving priority to an abuser over Australian child victims of sexual abuse?”

Linda wrote to Mr Burke on three occasions, pleading he deport the man “in the public interest”.The Department of Home Affairs responded to Linda earlier this year on behalf of the immigration minister, advising that his personal powers were “non-compellable”.”That is, the ministers are not required to exercise their power,” the letter said.

“Further, what is in the public interest is a matter for the ministers to determine.

“I appreciate this is not the response you were hoping for … I can assure you that your correspondence has been noted.”

Source: UK man who sexually abused girl has visa reinstated over ‘strong ties’ to Australia – ABC News