{"id":538295,"date":"2026-03-13T18:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538295\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T18:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:30:14","slug":"brave-mum-shares-patterns-of-coercive-control-that-put-ex-behind-bars-in-australian-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/538295\/","title":{"rendered":"Brave mum shares patterns of coercive control that put ex behind bars in Australian first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samantha met Callum Fairleigh on Tinder in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>After six weeks, he asked her to move in with him in Sydney&#8217;s eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I didn&#8217;t realise that was kind of gaining control over me,&#8221; said Samantha.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/a-current-affair\/pressure-mounting-on-government-to-deport-accused-paedophile-from-sunshine-coast\/a3b4ea30-1753-413c-9d50-a667ee40acff\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Pressure mounting on government to deport accused paedophile from Sunshine Coast\ufeff\">Pressure mounting on government to deport accused paedophile from Sunshine Coast\ufeff<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/0c73671e-df44-48fa-8963-0a50e02a0138.jpeg\"   alt=\"Samantha met Callum Fairleigh on Tinder in 2018.\"\/>Samantha met Callum Fairleigh on Tinder in 2018. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From then, I think things started to shift slowly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Samantha says Callum became jealous and possessive. <\/p>\n<p>He made her delete men she was friends with on social media and would constantly text and call her when she was out with friends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I didn&#8217;t respond to him&#8230; he would then blow up my phone and be like &#8216;Why are you ignoring me? What are you doing? Who are you with?&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Samantha says when she got pregnant in 2019, the abuse escalated. <\/p>\n<p>Callum would come home from being out drinking and using drugs, and pick fights with Sam which carried on until the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n<p>Many fights would involve Callum breaking things, or shoving Sam. During one argument, he tried to strangle her.<\/p>\n<p>After six years, Samantha decided enough was enough. She took her daughter to day care and went straight to police and made a statement with a female detective.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"http:\/\/9now.nine.com.au\/a-current-affair\/mum-82-pleads-with-ndis-to-take-over-care-of-son-living-with-several-disabilities\/06ef502e-ac77-41ac-af6b-1dcff37530dd\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Mum, 82, pleads with NDIS to take over care of son living with several disabilities\">Mum, 82, pleads with NDIS to take over care of son living with several disabilities<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/db0b2dd0-9691-40ab-ac37-baef96526540.jpeg\"   alt=\"Samantha's ex-partner Callum  Fairleigh became the first to be jail under coercive control laws after she reported his abuse to police.\"\/>Samantha&#8217;s ex-partner Callum  Fairleigh became the first to be jail under coercive control laws after she reported his abuse to police. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[The detective] goes, &#8216;It sounds like what you&#8217;re experiencing is coercive control,&#8221; said Samantha.<\/p>\n<p>Coercive control became a criminal offence in New South Wales in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>Last month, Callum Fairleigh became the first to be jailed under those new laws.<\/p>\n<p>He was sentenced to two years behind bars, with a non-parole period of 15 months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was really validating,&#8221; Samantha said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For years, you&#8217;re told that you&#8217;re dramatic and that it didn&#8217;t really happen, and then you finally hear the truth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Support is available through <a href=\"https:\/\/fullstop.org.au\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Full Stop Australia\">Full Stop Australia<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Help is available from the Men&#8217;s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samantha met Callum Fairleigh on Tinder in 2018. After six weeks, he asked her to move in with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-538295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}