‘Systemic failure’: Police slammed for ‘inadequate’ response after woman’s horror DV house fire death

A coroner has savaged the Queensland Police over their failure to protect a woman killed in a house fire at the hands of her estranged ex-partner, branding the woman’s death a “systemic failure”. Doreen Langham’s body was found alongside the body of Gary Hely, her abusive former partner, after her Browns Plains home was set alight in the early hours of February 22, 2021. Hely had forced his way into her home, bringing five litres of petrol with him on the night of the fire. In findings, delivered on Monday, deputy state coroner Jane Bentley found Hely struggled with Ms Langham – causing an injury to her spleen – before dousing her with and the rest of the unit with petrol and igniting the fire in the lounge room. An inquest into Ms Langham’s death exposed shocking inadequacies in the police response to her domestic violence plight, with one bodycam video capturing officers knocking at her door on the night she was killed but making no further investigations. Hours earlier, Ms Langham had phoned triple-0 saying Hely was outside her house. Ms Bentley found Hely intended to kill Ms Langham and himself and set the home on fire and Ms Langham never consented for him to enter. In outlining the cause of deaths, she said Hely hid at the rear of the unit when police attended after Ms Langham’s first phone call at 9.21pm on February 21, before entering the backyard around midnight. Ms Bentley savaged the QPS over their “inadequate” response to Ms Langham’s complaints, saying there were multiple missed opportunities to respond to Hely’s behaviour from as early as September 2020. “It is possible that, had every complaint been dealt with in accordance with relevant duties and obligations, Mr Hely would not have killed Ms Langham or himself,” she said. “The response she received fell far short of basic expectations.” Throughout the inquest, the court was told Hely’s relationship with Ms Langham was marked by controlling, abusive behaviour before she broke it off. She successfully obtained a domestic violence order against Hely in February 2021. Doreen Langham before and after giving a statement to police just over two weeks before she was slain by her ex-partner in an apparent murder-suicide. Video: Queensland Courts Officers who attended Ms Langham’s house the night before she died gave evidence they did not conduct any further investigations apart from knocking on her door to check if she was home. One of the officers was the same one who served Hely his domestic violence order 10 days before the horrifying killing. Ms Bentley said the poor response from police indicated a serious lack of training and understanding of domestic violence. “The greatest systemic failure is that every police officer dealt with each complaint in isolation and without checking the police database for relevant information,” she said. “A holistic investigative approach would have revealed that Mr Hely had concerning DV history interstate and that the frequency and severity of his behaviour was escalating.” Ms Bentley noted none of the officers involved acted out of malice and their response was a result of poor training and “acute understaffing” in the Logan District. Body-worn camera footage shows Gary Hely signing his DVO and swearing Doreen Langham had nothing to fear and that he had never been violent. She recommended the State Government fund a trial of “appropriately qualified and experienced” DV specialist social workers to be at the front counter of every police station in the Logan District, along with a trial of a specialist victim-centred police station for the district. It was also recommended that police officers “must” view a person’s interstate record for every DV matter. Domestic Violence helplines