The daughter of a domestic violence murder victim says women in Queensland are forced to play a game of "Russian roulette" as to whether they are going to get proper support from police.
Key points:
- Doreen Langham was killed by her ex-partner in January 2021
- Ms Langham sought help from police numerous times in the weeks leading up to her death
- Queensland's deputy coroner found the overall police response was "inadequate"
Shayne Probert told 7.30 her mother Doreen Langham asked for help from 16 different police officers in the two weeks before she was killed by her former partner in February last year.
"It's pretty scary to see that she had pretty much laid it all out for them and they still just dismissed it," she said.
"You’re playing a game of Russian roulette as to whether you're going to get a good police officer or not.
"Had things have changed, Mum could quite possibly be here today."
The Queensland deputy coroner handed down findings last month into the deaths of Ms Langham and also of Hannah Clarke and her three children.
Both cases, committed a year apart, had similarities.
The estranged partners used fire to kill and later committed suicide.
Domestic violence criminologist, Adjunct Professor Kerry Carrington, said there is also a disturbing theme about the response of the Queensland Police Service to these cases.
"In short, they're not ready. The Queensland police response to domestic family violence victims and survivors falls far short of minimal community expectations and standards," she told 7.30.
Professor Carrington, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, was given special access to the entire coronial file into the death of Ms Langham and has followed the Hannah Clarke inquest.
She said both cases highlighted the "utter failure" of successive Queensland governments to listen to women.
"It's more than urgent — it's been urgent for decades," she said.
'They misinterpreted her strength'
Deputy coroner Jane Bentley found in Ms Langham's case, the overall police response was "inadequate", "failed to take even the most basic steps" to apprehend the man threatening her life and indicated "a serious lack of training".
Ms Bentley said Queensland Police missed repeated opportunities for intervention, which would have likely prevented Ms Langham and her former partner Gary Hely's deaths.
And although she found it was unlikely police could have prevented the deaths of Hannah Clarke and her family, she did note police had failed to adequately assess the risk to the children and missed vital opportunities to keep Ms Clarke's estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, accountable.
Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said the state government would carefully consider the deputy coroner's recommendations, including the funding of a trial to create a specialist victim-centred police station and to fund the embedding of specialist social workers in every police station in the Logan district, south of Brisbane.
The Queensland government also plans to introduce legislation to criminalise coercive control — an issue that Ms Clarke's parents have been campaigning for.
Professor Carrington said although these new laws are both welcome and significant, there also needs to be improvements in police training, with Ms Langham's case revealing "systemic problems".
Body camera footage submitted in the inquest shows a police officer refusing to take out a domestic family violence order despite Ms Langham describing how she felt "physically ill" about her former partner's threats to kill her and his barrage of harassing text messages.
"I don't see you being injured — you seem calm, you seem happy," the body cam shows the police officer telling Ms Langham on February 7 last year, two weeks before the 49-year-old's death.
"And unfortunately for you, that is a bad thing because we need to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that domestic violence has occurred."
The officer is now facing internal disciplinary action for failure to properly investigate Ms Langham's case.
"They [the police officer] inappropriately applied the law, they inappropriately misunderstood their role under the domestic family violence act," Professor Carrington said.
"Doreen Langham didn't fit into the ideal victim type which is, you know, someone who's got physical bruises, someone who's been in hospitals, someone who is acting like a hapless victim and needs to be rescued.
"She was a strong, resilient woman, not wanting to present that way. But they misinterpreted her strength."
'Inadequate training and acute understaffing'
The deputy coroner noted none of the police officers who dealt with Ms Langham's complaints searched a New South Wales database, which would have revealed her former partner Hely had a criminal history of stalking, assault and a record of domestic violence against other women.
She found "none of these officers acted out of malice and their inadequate response was the result of inadequate training and acute understaffing".
Shayne Probert agrees the demands on police officers can be overwhelming.
"Those poor officers who are on the frontline and are dealing with, you know 40 per cent domestic violence throughout their daily work, they should have the backing behind them," she said.
"It is unfair on the police who they're dealing with it day in and day out, but it's also very unfair on the community who are expecting these police officers to help them."
Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd agreed there were systemic failures in Ms Langham's case.
"There's no way of avoiding that — you can't have that many points of failure in a scenario without having a good examination of the system," he said.
The Assistant Commissioner said the police service had since engaged external partners and experts for domestic violence training.
"We have already commenced a number of activities that are broadly within what we think is the future of responding and hopefully preventing domestic violence, which is an integrated service delivery and multidisciplinary centres," he said.
"But we [also] recognise that police are not the only entity in this space and in fact, we're limited sometimes — we're a blunt instrument at times dealing with very, very complex, complicated social issues."
Watch this story tonight on 7.30 on ABC TV and ABC iview.
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2022-07-11 18:39:35Z
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