THE Lalor Park community is rallying together after a 63-year-old woman and her seven-year-old grandson were found dead in the street last Tuesday.
Responding to reports a man armed with a knife was threatening a woman, police found the woman's body on the front lawn of a property in Kennedy Parade and the body of her grandson on an adjoining property.
The woman's 35-year-old son (the boy's uncle), who is charged with two counts of murder and one of assault police, will appear in Penrith Local Court on November 6.
READ MORE: Click here to read more about the alleged murder.
Blacktown local area commander, Detective Superintendent Gary Merryweather said his heart went out to the community and to the officers who attended the domestic violence-related double killing in Kennedy Parade.
A report by the Australian Institute of Criminology showed of the 2631 homicide incidents documented within the National Homicide Monitoring Program data set over the 10-year period to June 30, 2012, 1088 (41 per cent) were classified as domestic/family homicides.
Intimate partners represented the majority (56 per cent) of victims of domestic/family homicides, followed by children (21 per cent) and parents (12 per cent).
According to the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, in 2014 the recorded rate of domestic violence related assault in Blacktown local government area was ranked 28 out of the 139 LGAs with populations greater than 3000.
The rate per 100,000 population of reported incidents of assault (domestic related), July 2014 to June 2015:
■ New South Wales: 396.4
■ Auburn: 404.1
■ Blacktown: 610.2
■ Blue Mountains: 274.5
■ Hawkesbury: 424.2
■ Holroyd: 448.9
■ Hornsby: 115.1
■ Parramatta: 418.4
■ Penrith: 588.4
■ The Hills: 131.0
Detective Superintendent Merryweather said despite what had happened his command was making positive inroads educating the community about saying no to violence against women.
Court advocate Cheryl Alexander said following a major change to legislation police now automatically refer victims of abuse to one of 28 Women's Domestic Violence Court Services.
"That service will either phone, send a letter or at least a text message to that woman to see if she needs support," Ms Alexander, co-ordinator of the Western Sydney service, said.
‘‘What we had before was women were offered the ‘opportunity’ to have a service reach out to her.’’
"Last year, of the 988 clients we saw, 69.13 per cent had children," Ms Alexander said.
Her service caters for women who attend the Penrith and Mount Druitt local courts.
‘‘The majority of the women we see it’s the ex partner that’s violent," Ms Alexander said.
‘‘I think women everywhere are struggling with crisis accommodation.
‘‘I had one recently with children, one of which was over 17. You can’t place adult children.
‘‘We have plenty of access for victim services such as counselling, but case management — doing that ongoing support to get her into a refuge — is a challenge. Funding is also an issue.’’
Domestic violence counsellor Deborah Sanasi said there were eight types of domestic violence: physical, sexual, social, emotional, psychological, financial, spiritual, and stalking.
‘‘Stalking can include physical stalking, but can also involve cyberstalking and monitoring emails and text messages without consent, which is a growing, very significant problem,’’ Ms Sanasi said.
Ms Alexander said they are finding technology is also being used to track women. ‘‘One man intentionally put the child’s phone in her car to track her,’’ she said.
■ Macquarie (covers Parramatta and Ryde courts), 8833 0922;
■ North West Sydney (Blacktown, Windsor), 4587 9997;
■ Western Sydney (Penrith, Mount Druitt), 4731 5098.
Details: http://legalaid.nsw.gov.au
For information, support and referrals, call the 24-hour Domestic Violence Line on 1800 65 64 63. The Domestic Violence Legal Advice Line provides free confidential legal information, advice and referrals for women in NSW with a focus on domestic violence and Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (AVOs). Call: 8745 6999 or 1800 810 784.
Crisis support is also available through Lifeline, 13 11 14. In 2013-14, UnitingCare Community’s Lifeline service answered 145,125 calls. Of these, 19,164 identified safety issues during the call, of which 17 per cent were related to domestic violence.
Under the Crimes (Domestic & Personal Violence) Act police must apply for a provisional apprehended violence order (AVO) if they suspect, or believe, a domestic violence offence is being, or was recently, committed, is likely, or imminent and victim needs immediate protection.