Proving your innocence – get f***ed

The Herald reports:

Sir Owen Glenn’s independent inquiry into family violence suggests shifting the burden of proof in “domestic” cases so that alleged perpetrators are considered guilty unless they can prove they are innocent.

With respect – get fucked.

I am a big supporter of doing more to prevent domestic violence. I believe protection orders are inadequate and blogged support a few days ago for the idea of tagging people who have broken a protection order or have previous domestic violence convictions.

But shifting the burden of proof, so that the accused has to prove they are innocent is repugnant and if that is the quality of what they are proposing, then the report is a waste of time.

But it offers “ideas for change” from those who gave evidence, including “a major review of the court system”. Ideas include:

• “Revisit the burden of proof so that it lies with perpetrators not victims.”

• Review the adversarial system which “places an excessive burden of proof on victims”, replacing it with “a more collaborative system where the burden of proof is on the perpetrator”.

That’s alleged perpetrator.