NSW's coercive control law put Samantha Bouffler's abuser in jail.
In January this year Callum Fairleigh became the first person to be sentenced to a jail term under NSW's new law against coercive control, the pattern of controlling behaviour perpetrators of domestic violence use to entrap and dominate victims.
The agreed facts ran to eight pages, chronicling almost six months of Fairleigh's abuse from July 1, 2024, when the legislation took effect.
In November 2022, NSW became the first Australian jurisdiction to criminalise coercive control, with a new law, in force from July 2024, making it an offence to engage in a pattern of abusive behaviour against a current or former partner to coerce or control them. Plus, they argued, coercive control is a precursor in up to 99 per cent of domestic homicides — outlawing it could " literally " save lives.
New data released by BOCSAR this week shows NSW police recorded 682 reports of coercive control in the first 24 months of the offence, the large majority involving a female victim. As of June 2026, 42 charges had been laid, all of them against men, and four defendants were sentenced after pleading guilty: two received prison sentences, one a 18-month intensive correction order, and the other a two-year community correction order.
For Professor Jane Wangmann a concern in NSW is the large disparity between reports of coercive control and domestic violence assaults.
The research, published last year, found police in England and Wales failed to record coercive control in at least 87 per cent of cases of physical violence.