The Queensland Police Service (QPS) missed two opportunities to prevent the domestic violence murder of Kelly Wilkinson, including one in which an alleged breach of her protection order “fell by the wayside”, a senior officer at the inquest into her death has said.
The coroner’s inquest into the 27-year-old’s murder found on Tuesday that her ex-husband, Brian Earl Johnston, was wrongly granted bail on a rape charge eight days before he burned her to death on April 20, 2021.
DI Paul Fletcher, who now leads the Gold Coast vulnerable people group, said it was a “missed opportunity”, as was the decision to incorrectly portray a breach of Wilkinson’s protection order as a “street check”.
Wilkinson went to two police stations on April 11, 2021 to report alleged breaches of his domestic violence protection order. On April 11, at the Southport police station, Officer Diana Sovacki wrote in a police log that she “appeared to be looking for police to get the result she wanted.”
Sovacki also incorrectly entered his report as a “street check”, although it was taken at the station, the court heard.
Fletcher said domestic violence issues are not supposed to be recorded as street checks because “what that does within the police system, it sort of goes unnoticed.”
“Any system checks done by the VPU (the vulnerable people unit), street checks are not collected…” he said. This means the reported offense was not assessed in the specialist domestic violence unit’s daily checks of all relevant reports, he said.
Because street checks are used for a variety of purposes, they can “get lost in the system, so we don’t get a holistic view of what’s happening to those people, because it kind of gets lost in the noise of other information,” Fletcher said.
Wilkinson repeatedly sought help from the police and an outside non-governmental organization, the Domestic Violence Prevention Center (DVPC).
He had been assessed as being at high risk of harm as a result of domestic violence and his record marked “high risk of domestic violence and treating the calls as serious,” Fletcher said.
But a referral to Southport’s domestic violence liaison officer was never opened, and Wilkinson never spoke to a specialist officer to develop a safety plan before he died.
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Fletcher explained that at the time there was a “considerable turnaround time” for the work due to a lack of police resources.
“That was just due to the demand and the delay in getting out and seeing everyone over and over again, just the officer resources available to be able to fill that role,” he said.
Wilkinson spoke to the DVPC who asked police to review his case on April 4.
Teresa Springer, then an officer with the Gold Coast’s vulnerable people unit, assessed the application. She told the inquest she had not received formal training in assessing domestic violence risk, but when she started work another officer sat next to her to explain the role.
Springer emailed the DVPC the same day to say it had not identified any issues with the policing approach and that policies had been followed.
“If Ms. Wilkinson is not happy with the results, she has the option of filing a complaint with the officer in charge of the station involved,” he wrote in the email.
Springer told the court she was not trying to be condescending or rude, and was only informing Wilkinson that she had the opportunity to make a complaint.
Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher will hear from the last of five witnesses today. The brief three-day investigation will conclude Thursday with final submissions from attorneys.
Gallagher will consider whether QPS’s response to Wilkinson’s complaints was in accordance with policy at the time and “whether QPS has made appropriate changes to training, policy and procedure to address any shortcomings identified in respect of responses to domestic violence”.
The coroner’s inquest does not consider whether the police response was appropriate, why Johnston, 37, killed his wife or whether any officer’s action could have prevented her death.
Although not among the topics listed in the inquest, under the Coroners Act, Gallagher can also comment or make recommendations on anything relating to Wilkinson’s death that relates to public health or safety, the administration of justice or ways to prevent deaths in similar circumstances from occurring in the future.
The court heard the issues were worded “very narrowly” due to Johnston’s pending criminal trial for rape.
The investigation continues.
In Australia, the national family violence advice service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit Women’s Aid. In the United States, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
