A witness at a coronial inquest into the death of Queensland woman Doreen Langham in an apparent domestic violence murder last year says police failed her despite repeated opportunities to intervene and potentially save her life.
Warning: This story contains graphic details that readers may find distressing.
The 49-year-old from Browns Plain, south of Brisbane, died in a unit fire believed to have been ignited by her ex-partner Gary Hely in February 2021. Both Ms Langham and Hely were killed in the fire.
On the third day of a coronial inquest on the Gold Coast this week, the court heard from QUT professor Kerry Carrington, who has researched gendered violence for 30 years.
She was asked to review the Queensland Police Service's interactions with Ms Langham by state coroner Jane Bentley.
"There was error after error. It was a calamity of errors," Professor Carrington said.
Professor Carrington said the police did not have the will, skill or expertise to respond to the woman's desperate pleas for help.
"This is a systemic institutional issue. It goes to the core of police culture and police training," she said.
"They misunderstood the law, they misapplied the law, they didn't understand what coercive control is."
Ms Carrington suggested there were numerous times police could and should have intervened that might have saved Ms Langham's life.
"They misinterpreted there being a prowler at her home instead of a possible domestic violence issue," she said.
"They knocked once [at her home on the night she died] but didn't use search powers to see if Mr Hely was in the yard.
Ms Langham had taken out a domestic violence order against Hely before her death in February 2021, which he had breached numerous times, including making a threat to her life.
She called police to her unit on the evening she was killed, fearing her ex-partner had again breached the order and was outside her home.
Police arrived hours later after attending another job, but left for a meal break after Ms Langham didn't answer the door. Four hours later her home was alight, with the victim and Hely inside.
'Did everything she could to protect herself'
During today's inquest the court also heard from a domestic and family violence social worker who had been working with Ms Langham on her case.
Social worker Ines Ilijasevic told the court Ms Langham "did everything right" to try to protect herself.
"And somehow that still wasn't enough.
"Knowing what I know now, I don't think I could have done anything different. I think we did everything we could."
When asked whether she felt police attitude and culture responding to domestic violence incidents was part of the issue, Ms Ilijasevic agreed.
"I couldn't even count how many clients have their complaints dismissed," she said.
"They're blamed for what's happened, mistaken for the perpetrator because they're distressed while the perpetrator is cool, calm, collected.
She told the court, police often treat domestic violence breaches as minor if they don't involve physical violence, an issue she said needed to change.
"It's an issue that comes up quite regularly. If a breach is a text, call even, where there's 20, 50, 100 … it's not deemed as serious as where there's been physical abuse or assault," she said.
"Capturing coercive control still more needs to be done to identify that. It's a big risk factor."
Counsellor Chris Chicoteau was another witness to provide evidence at today's inquest, detailing he had seen Hely for four sessions for "relationship counselling".
"I felt there wasn't enough respect or equality within this relationship to conduct relationship counselling. I wanted to keep the focus on him, his behaviour and his change … while he wanted things from her to change."
The inquest will continue tomorrow and is due to finish on Friday.
