New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL VIOLENCE) ACT 2007 - SECT 12

12 Recording of domestic violence offences

(1) The charge in respect of an offence may indicate that the offence is a domestic violence offence.

(2) If a person pleads guilty to an offence or is found guilty of an offence and the court is satisfied that the offence was a domestic violence offence, the court is to direct that the offence be recorded on the person's criminal record as a domestic violence offence.

(3) If the court makes a direction under this section to record an offence as a domestic violence offence, the prosecution may make an application to the court requesting that the court direct that specified offences in respect of which the person has previously pleaded guilty or been found guilty be recorded as domestic violence offences.

(4) Any such application is to include sufficient information in support of the request to enable the court to make a decision as to whether such a recording is appropriate.

(5) The court may require the prosecutor to provide further information to enable it to make a determination as to whether to direct a recording to be made under this section.

(6) If satisfied after considering an application under subsection (3) that an offence referred to in the application was a domestic violence offence, the court is to direct that the offence be recorded on the criminal record of the person concerned as a domestic violence offence.

(7) A victim of an offence is not compellable in any proceedings before the court to determine whether the court should make a direction under this section to record an offence as a domestic violence offence.

(8) A court that directs a recording to be made under this section or is required to take such a recording into account may, on application or on its own motion, correct the recording if it considers that there is an error in the recording.

(9) Regulations may be made for or with respect to the recording of offences under this section, including the manner in which and time within which such recordings are to be made.

Note--: An indication in the charge for an offence that a person has committed a domestic violence offence will be relevant in bail proceedings. The recording on a person's criminal record that an offence is a domestic violence offence will be relevant to sections 7 and 8 of this Act, where previous behaviour constituting a domestic violence offence is taken into account for the purpose of determining whether a person's behaviour amounts to intimidation or stalking, and to sections 27 and 49 of this Act, which require police to make applications for apprehended domestic violence orders in situations where the person in question has already committed a domestic violence offence. Section 21A of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 provides that a record of previous convictions is an aggravating factor to be taken into account when determining the appropriate sentence for an offence.