ALARMING new stats show that court-issued domestic violence orders (AVOs) have dramatically increased in the Bathurst region over the past five years.
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Latest figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) show the Local Court issued 470 domestic AVOs in Bathurst Regional local government area from July 2022 to June 2023, compared to 350 during the previous time period.
On a per capita basis, courts issued 1226.9 domestic AVOs per 100,000 people living in Bathurst Regional, well above the state LGA average of 560.
2022-23 is the highest level for domestic AVOs in Bathurst Regional during the past five recording periods, with the lowest period 2019-20 with 285.
Bathurst Regional seems to be following a trend of domestic and non-domestic AVOs being far more prevalent in remote and regional areas, with Greater Sydney recording 424 domestic AVOs per 100,000 people in 2022-23, compared with 1739 in the Far West region of NSW.
In other neighbouring LGAs in 2022-23, Orange had 462 AVOs issued, Oberon 18, Lithgow 189, Mid-Western (Mudgee) 184 and Blayney 50.
The BOCSAR court statistics show the Local Court finalised nine per cent more cases in 2022-23 than in 2018-19 across the state, but this was in part due to a significant shift in the nature of those finalisations.
The prosecution withdrew 77 per cent more matters, guilty pleas rose 4 per cent and matters proven in the defendant's absence jumped 24 per cent.
Domestic violence-related assault finalisations accounted for 32 per cent of the increase in matters withdrawn in the Local Court between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
The Local Court finalised fiver per cent fewer defended hearings in 2022-23 than in the year before the pandemic and the median time to finalise a defended hearing rose 98 days from 198 to 296.
Sentencing figures show the proportion of proven offenders receiving a custodial penalty fell from 9.9 per cent in 2018-19 to 8.8 per cent in 2022-23.