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It is not just women who benefit from that attitude that family violence is not a real crime. From an Australian court today - a typical case - a man walks free from court after nearly killing his toddler son - the boy was kicked until his liver was split:

A FATHER whose "forceful kick" left his toddler with severe internal injuries, including a lacerated liver, has been spared jail.

The District Court today found Troy Levi Galffy lashed out at his three-year-old son, lacerating the boy's liver, due to "unexpected and subliminal forces" arising from his own childhood.

.... Judge Sydney Tilmouth said ... "The circumstances suggest you unjustifiably overreacted to a very minor situation... however, below the surface there were quite unusual dynamics at work," he said.

"You suffered childhood abuse yourself (and it) was brought to the surface on this occasion, producing intense anger and overcoming normal cognitive processes.

"But for these considerations, your actions would be wholly inexplicable and otherwise expose a potentially unacceptable risk of harm in the future."

Apparently what the boy did, to provoke this assault, was that he went to the front door, curious to see who was knocking on it.