General
High Court rejects claim NT police ‘trespassed’ when breathalysing Aboriginal woman in domestic violence check
The High Court has rejected a claim police were “trespassing” when they breathalysed and arrested a Northern Territory woman for being drunk in her own home in breach of a domestic violence order.
Key points:
- The case centred on a woman arrested for breaching a domestic violence order by drinking around her partner
- The court’s majority said police had the implied common law right to enter the premises
- Two dissenting justices said legislation — not an implied right — was needed for “coercive” action
In a split three-to-two decision, the court found officers had the ordinary implied right to knock on the woman’s flyscreen door and the power to then order a breath test, which they did as part of a “proactive policing” operation on domestic…
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