The same day Doreen Langham ended her “controlling and abusive” relationship, she called police seeking help.
The Queensland coroner’s court has heard how Langham told officers on that morning – 7 February 2021 – that her former partner, Gary Hely, had threatened her. He told Langham she had “three weeks to live”. Fifteen days later she was killed in a house fire, along with Hely.
The counsel assisting the state coroner, Ben Jackson, told a coroner’s inquest on Monday that the police response to Langham’s plea for help was beset by “so many inadequacies”. Langham’s complaints were “quite simply … not properly investigated”, he said.
The inquest is examining the police response, including several interactions between Langham and officers between 7 February and 22 February, the day Hely carried out his earlier threat.
The court heard Hely had bought 10 litres of petrol, entered Langham’s Browns Plains home and set the property alight.
A preliminary hearing last year had been told about a triple-zero call by Langham “seeking protection” earlier that night. Jackson told the hearing that police took an hour to respond, knocked on the door of her unit, and left.
In his opening address on Monday, Jackson told the courtroom Langham had endured “many months of controlling and abusive behaviour by Mr Hely” before her first call to police on 7 February.
“In the morning he’d made threats to Ms Langham that would send a chill down anyone’s spine. He said she had three weeks to live,” Jackson said.
“It was a call to Policelink that alerted police initially to her concerns. They advised her not to return home … she went to a friend’s place in Marsden. It was there that Ms Langham’s many personal interactions with police would begin.
“Two officers arrived … her interaction with those officers would be representative of so many inadequacies.
“Not all police showed that level of inadequacy. Some understood Ms Langham’s concerns and the risks she faced, and they did what they could to help. Those positive actions were not enough.”
Langham’s death last year was one of a number that placed renewed focus on police handling of domestic violence cases. The Queensland government is considering a recommendation to hold a royal commission into police responses to domestic violence cases.
The first witness at the inquest, a police officer, said she did not believe she was adequately trained. The officer broke down in tears in the witness box when asked what she would do differently about her interaction with Langham.
“I wouldn’t have had so much reliance on her presentation to me, her demeanour,” the officer said.
“I would have asked more probing questions. Could she provide messages to me? Did she have any further evidence of anything … that she could offer me? Was there any previous history between the two?”
Earlier, Jackson had said he did not suggest any officers had acted with malice towards Langham.
“Rather and quite simply, Ms Langham’s complaints were not properly investigated.
“Ms Langham had done all she could. She’d shown herself to be … articulate. She knew the danger and the risks that Hely [presented] and as the days went by she did all she could to bring Hely to account and to try to get him to stop.”
Jackson said the events of the early morning of 22 February were “clear”.
“Hely entered her home. It’s almost impossible to think that Ms Langham let him in. He forced his entry. Hely brought with him an amount of petrol. He’d bought an amount of 10 litres the previous day while in the area.
“Hely … had a plan and that plan actually came about. Ms Langham would perish in her own home and that was due to a fire that Hely had started.
“Whatever they were, and whatever your honour finds, one thing is clear: Ms Langham’s last moments must have been filled with utter terror.”
The court has temporarily suppressed the names of police officers giving evidence.
