An inquest has begun in Darwin examining the death of a woman who was killed by her ex-partner, while he was out on a suspended sentence for a separate violent assault.
Roberta, whose family have requested she be referred to by her first name, made multiple phone calls to triple-0 five days before she was killed, saying she was being "threatened" by her ex-partner and that he was breaching conditions of his release by drinking alcohol.
Warning: the following story contains descriptions of a graphic nature.
The 28-year-old mother of three died from internal bleeding after she was assaulted in Katherine by Lorenzo Deegan in the early hours of June 18, 2019.
Deegan, 31, was sentenced to a decade behind bars in 2020 after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated assault and one of negligent manslaughter.
A coronial inquest into Roberta's death is now examining why parole officers were unaware Deegan had been attempting to track Roberta down while he was undertaking a rehabilitation program, and whether she was given adequate assistance when she called police.
Court hears history of abusive behaviour
In his opening remarks on Tuesday, counsel assisting Kelvin Currie detailed a history of threatening and abusive behaviour towards Roberta in the lead up to her death.
Three months before her death, Deegan had been sending abusive text messages to Roberta, who was in Darwin at the time, while he was undertaking a court-ordered rehabilitation program.
Deegan was undertaking a drug and alcohol program as a condition of his release, after serving two years in prison over a separate violent assault.
After completing the program, he travelled to Darwin with permission of a parole officer to visit his children, wearing an electronic monitoring device.
Instead, he tracked down Roberta and took her back to Katherine, assaulting her twice in Darwin and once in Adelaide River.
In an incident one week before her death, Deegan punched Roberta several times until she fell to the ground, when he held a concrete block above her head and demanded to know her where she had been, or he would "hit you with a rock".
Deegan gives evidence to the court
Appearing in court via video link, Deegan told the coroner "he was just angry" at Roberta over suspicions she had been seeing other men while he was in prison.
"I wanted her to come back home," he said when questioned about the threatening text messages he had sent to her.
Mr Currie told the court Roberta stayed with family in Katherine in the days before her death.
In a triple-0 call played to the court, Roberta said Deegan was her "partner" and said he had come to the house she was staying in and had hit her in the face.
"I just want him to go back to prison," she told the operator.
Deegan had left before two police officers attended the scene, where Roberta asked them "to look for Lorenzo Deegan, he has been drinking, he done this to me", while showing them her injury.
She called triple-0 two more times that night, saying "he keeps coming around and threatening" and that officers should be able to track Deegan because he was wearing an electronic monitoring device.
'If you don't want us to come back, stop calling us'
Body worn vision of the officers' second visit to the house was played to the court, showing a man – who was not Deegan — answering the door visibly agitated.
"If you don't want us to come back, stop calling us," the officer can be heard saying.
"I didn't call," the man responded.
"She is," the officer said, pointing inside the house.
"If you're getting angry at us coming, stop calling, easy as that," the officer said.
"I'm going to go now, stop calling, you obviously don't want us here."
Five days later, police were called to the house where Deegan was staying, where they found Roberta dead, suffering injuries from an early morning assault.
Her injuries included a fractured rib, lacerated spleen and bruises to her head, thigh and lip, an autopsy found.
Counsel assisting Kelvin Currie asked parole officer Kelly Fox if there was anything more that could have been done by NT Correctional Services while Deegan was out on a suspended sentence.
She said there had been "no red flags" in relation to Deegan during his time as a prisoner or while undertaking rehabilitation, and there had been no indication he required more stringent compliance checks than other offenders.
"In this situation a collateral check hadn't been undertaken with police at that stage, given he'd only just exited [rehabilitation]," Ms Fox said.
Several witnesses, including police, are due to give evidence on Wednesday.
