By HELEN BROWN.
A Melbourne woman who was stalked and stabbed to death by her former partner made 38 calls to police in the weeks before her killing, an coronial inquest has heard.
Kelly Thompson, 43, of Point Cook, was found dead in her home in February last year and her former partner, Wayne Woods, took his own life.
Kelly’s mother, Wendy Thompson, told an inquest in the Victorian Coroner’s Court today that her daughter had tried to protect herself by taking out the order against a man who had become increasingly violent and possessive.
The court heard Woods threatened to self-harm, spied on his former partner and followed her around to social events even when the intervention order was in place.
“Wayne was told by a magistrate that if he breached the intervention order he would be arrested, but when he continued to stalk Kelly, he didn’t even get a slap on the wrist,” Mrs Thompson said.
“This would have conveyed a message that what he was doing in reality was excusable and the system wasn’t going to stop him and wasn’t going to protect and support Kelly.”
Counsel assisting the coroner, Rachel Ellyard, told the court the inquest would examine how police responded to phone calls Thompson made to police, including a call indicating Wood was in the house contrary to the intervention order.
Mrs Thompson had spoken to her daughter on the phone a few days before she was killed and Kelly said she was “safe now” and assured her father that her doors and windows were constantly locked.
Mrs Thompson said in court that she became angry and frustrated by the lack of information being provided by police after her daughter’s death and also raised questions about the system.
“On one occasion I asked [police] how Kelly could have been killed by Wayne when there was an intervention order in place,” she said.
“He [the police officer] said at the end of the day, the order was just a piece of paper. John [Kelly’s father] replied: ‘Well, it is if it’s not acted upon.'”
Mrs Thompson said she was told by a detective soon after the murder that “down the track we [police] are going to be shown to have stuffed up here”.
“Intervention orders are no good unless they’re enforced. Otherwise they’re just a bit of paper,” the family’s lawyer, Paula Shelton said.
Mrs Thompson told the court of the further frustration in seeking to find out more about a coronial inquest and information that police had about her daughter’s death.
“I feel like Victoria Police is covering for what they did and did not do from senior command down,” she said.
Partner ‘tried to strangle me’
Mrs Thompson said she and her husband became increasingly concerned around 12 to 18 months into the relationship when their normally health-conscious and outgoing daughter put on significant weight and became stressed.
The parents also noticed that Woods was always around.
“I was always aware of Wayne in the background when we tried to talk to Kelly by Skype,” she said.
The court heard of several incidents involving violence, including once when Thompson was locked in a hotel room.
A witness in the hearing told the court he made a call to the triple-0 emergency service after seeing a car driving erratically towards Thompson.
Steven Hall told the court that Thompson said to make the call as her partner had “tried to strangle me”.
Mrs Thompson told the court that her daughter largely kept the extent of abuse from her family, believing that is was something that she had to deal with.
In her emotional statement, Mrs Thompson she said that when her daughter was born she was given a recording of the song A Little Ray of Sunshine.
“[Now] there is no more Kelly, no more little ray of sunshine, and there should be,” Mrs Thompson said.
“Kelly’s death need never have happened. It was preventable.”
This article was originally published by ABC News.
© 2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Read the ABC Disclaimer here.
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Top Comments
We have just come out of many months in refuge. Waited a few hours for the police to turn up that night. By that stage everyone was back to "our" normal and relaxed selves, that is how we lived. The let down by the police however, was they didn't tick the right box.
Do I blame them? Well they were busy that night probably trying to get to all the other dv going on. Tired and busy. It is so easy to stuff things up when you live or work in a constant environment of violence. Women and men calling for help 24 hrs a day.
Victims go back because there is nowhere else to go the refuges are already full, families don't want to get involved and it is safer to stay then being hunted down.
Although they know things will remain the same they have lost their voice and their confidence to change the way they live.
It takes approximately 9 times for a victim with children to eventually leave.
It is also not always due to children - often family pets are involved as well. The 2 seem to go together. However, RSPCA are far more proactive in removing abused animals. It is a pity the legal system cannot follow the same path of protection for humans.
At the end of the day it is the children who are most effected by the violence, they do not need to see it, only hear it.
Silence is violence in domestic situations. If we do leave and go to court we are often told we have to pay the 'perps' lawyer cost for court appearances. Would you pay thousands of dollars for someone to hit you?
These are the realities a victim faces. It is not only the hetero community but the statistics in same sex relationships are much higher when it comes to DV.
I understand family law and DV clearly now but the unfortunate part is the hierarchy just haven't caught up with what happens behind closed doors, hense the sentences or lack thereof. It's an insular society we live in.
This kind of thing is standard in our community. After recent experience I have no faith that we are protected by law enforcement services. There is so much paperwork and crap they have to deal with that they never deal with actual problems and victims are left unprotected. Recently my sister went to the police 3 times in a week asking them to remove her partner from their home, there was a warrant out for his arrest for driving unlicensed, they said 'they will get around to it'. By the end of the week he had run over her with his car during an argument. What punishment did he get? Nothing. Her punishment, 3 months of hospitalisation and will need help with her children potentially forever. There is something wrong with the world we live in.
I am so so sorry for what happened to your sister. Please let her know she only has 12 months to lodge a TAC claim, but once she has they can assist with things like child care, house cleaning, etc. She is also likely to be eligable for a VOCAT claim. Money doesn't fix these situations, but it can take the financial pressure off while she sorts the financial/legal/practical side of things out.
Oh my God, that is horrifying. Where are you located?
Thank you, yes the hospital has been very helpful with giving us information on what she has access to in terms of support.
Victoria