Protection orders must be just that

The issue of men breaching such orders is often raised in court but what the answer is to ensuring the safety of women and children, I'm really not sure.

SHOCKING is the only way to describe the deaths of two children in the past week who were the subject of a protection order.

The issue of men breaching such orders is often raised in court but what the answer is to ensuring the safety of women and children, I'm really not sure.

The father of the children, Edward Livingstone, twice breached an order in the months leading up to the murders. How on earth a $500 fine was expected to deter this man, hell-bent on ensuring he punished his former partner for leaving him, is beyond me. I wonder if his job as a prison worker saved him from conviction.

Often these women don't want to take such a drastic measure as an order but it is clearly needed in many cases. But are these protection orders worth the paper they are written on? Somehow, I think a man determined to make himself heard or felt doesn't think about the consequences of breaching them.

In the months leading up to the shooting of Bradley, 9, and Ellen, 6, Livingstone had said he was going to kill the children and burn the house down to punish their mother for no longer loving him.

He terrified the children's mother - stalking and constantly harassing her, yet we as a community and our police force couldn't do anything more to protect her or her children.

Although she had a plan in place, including installing a panic alarm in her bedroom to alert neighbours, her babies were still killed.

Wairarapa Women's Refuge manager Lyn Buckley has previously said until men accept responsibility for their actions and behaviour, nothing will change and she is so right.

Only Livingstone could have stopped this. Police were not camped on her doorstep and neither could they be.

But what is the answer? We can't lock these men up, or can we?

If there is a real sign of danger and these men breach an order, then our courts must act. The deaths of these children and those before them call for such action.

No, we don't know if these men are serious or just blowing off steam but, really, who cares? They have no respect for the law - proving so by breaching the order in the first place.

Unless judges hold them accountable through our legal system they will continue with their anti-social behaviour.