Police failed to adequately investigate deaths of four Indigenous women, former officer says

A former senior sergeant alleges she was told to protect the Queensland Police Service’s reputation when preparing reports for the state’s coroner. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

A Queensland police whistleblower has claimed she was directed to withhold evidence of police failures in domestic violence cases from the state coroner’s office, and that detectives did not properly investigate the deaths of at least four First Nations women who had previously been subject to repeated violence by their partners.

The former senior sergeant – a veteran of more than 20 years in the Queensland Police Service (QPS) – worked as a police liaison to the domestic and family violence death review unit, which is part of the state coroner’s office. Her role in 2020 included auditing death investigations for any link to domestic and family violence (DFV).