How the South Australia Police department failed mother of three and domestic violence victim Zahra Abrahimzadeh

FEW documents depict widespread institutional incompetence, individual apathy and an appalling lack of judgment better than the coronial findings into the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh.

IT RANKS among the most damning documents in recent legal history — and with good reason.

Few documents depict widespread institutional incompetence, individual apathy and an appalling lack of judgment better than the coronial findings into the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh.

Zahra suffered 24 years of domestic violence before she and her three children fled her husband, Ziaolleh, trusting SA Police to protect them and safeguard their lives.

Instead, the brave woman who had survived beatings and being thrown through a window was executed, in front of 300 people, by Ziaolleh — while he was subject to a restraining order.

State Coroner Mark Johns’ findings, handed down on Monday, were scathing of SA Police for 13 months of slack and disappointing failures, and desultory and half-hearted investigations.

In the face of indisputable criticism, Deputy Commissioner Grant Stevens could only apologise — publicly and then privately to Zahra’s son, Arman — for the force’s negligence.

Yet only when the organisation’s repeated dereliction of duty is laid out — incident by incident, can the true scope of SA Police’s “wrongheadedness” on domestic violence be truly comprehended.

Mr Johns’ findings are no less than an indictment of an organisation consisting of people sworn to protect us — and a chilling indicator that, in some cases, that vow is but a hollow promise.

UNSAFE

By February 23, 2009, Ziaolleh Abrahimzadeh had subjected his wife and children to unimaginable torment.

He had treated Zahra with derision and violence almost from the moment their arranged marriage began, in Iran, sometime between 1984 and 1985.

Once in Australia, Ziaolleh — who was Afghani by birth — was consumed by bitterness and jealousy over properties back in Iran he thought should be sold for his financial benefit.

The properties were under the control of Zahra’s relatives, fuelling both Ziaolleh’s delusional belief he was being swindled and his furious outbursts toward his family.

He, of course, characterised his actions as those of a good Persian father when, in truth, his abuse was a perversion of that culture’s lifestyle.

Zahra was repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked — on one occasion Ziaolleh threw her through a window.

Her daughters, Atena and Anita, were whipped with belts, smothered with pillows and had their fingers burned for disobeying Ziaolleh’s abrupt, often contradictory rules of good conduct.

At one stage, Ziaolleh whipped Atena with the antennae of a cordless phone because he thought she had spoken to a boy — and then attacked Zahra for defending her daughter.

Arman was also subjected to abuse but, like all cowards, Ziaolleh stopped attacking his son when the younger, stronger man stood up to him.

Over time, the root of Ziaolleh’s loathsome conduct was revealed — while preaching good conduct to his family, he was having an affair with another woman.

And so, on that February afternoon, Zahra and her children went to the Salisbury police station seeking help.

Probationary Constable Olivia Negruk was on duty at the time and, although she had been an officer for just two months, acquitted herself in exemplary fashion.

She spent four hours with the family and, over the next 48 hours, logged domestic violence and child abuse reports, secured safe accommodation and arranged a restraining order.

Importantly, she issued a tasking that Ziaolleh be arrested.

It was, by the Coroner’s reckoning, the first and last time SA Police acted properly on behalf of the Abrahimzadehs.

UNTOUCHABLE

Arresting Zialloh was considered a “Priority A” tasking but, despite that importance, error crept into the police’s operations from the outset.

Two of the first officers tasked with Ziaolleh’s arrest, Senior Constables Frank Nazar and Jason Hill, were not told he owned a pizza bar and might be found there.

After discovering he was not at the family home, they simply moved on to other tasks despite having Zahra’s mobile phone number at hand to call her for further information.

Most gallingly, the menial task of washing and refuelling their patrol car was prioritised over the location of a dangerous, violent suspect.

Failing to arrest Ziaolleh was, in Mr Johns’ mind, the single greatest error police made.

“The power to arrest and charge is the most powerful influence that police can bring to bear against a person such as Ziaolleh,” he said in his findings.

“If that power is not exercised expeditiously or, worse, not exercised at all, the domestic violence offender will think that he has gotten away with it.”

That error was compounded by the dismissive attitude displayed by members of the Elizabeth Family Violence Investigation Section.

Senior Constable Richard Hern, who was responsible for Zahra’s matter during March and April 2009, decided the case “wasn’t high risk” and amounted to “a kick and a slap”.

From his perspective little could be done because Ziaolleh had “disappeared”.

“Hypothetically if I had more time it would have been great to have arrested him and get bail conditions in place,” he told Mr Johns during the inquest.

Worse still was the involvement of Senior Constable Greg Flitton whose efforts were, in Mr Johns’ opinion, “fruitless” and his approach “wrongheaded”.

He, too, considered Ziaolleh to have vanished — but never contacted the Abrahimzadehs.

The height of his inadequacy came on September 30, 2009, when he spoke to two of Ziaolleh’s family members, then denied any knowledge of the man and SC Flitton believed them.

“This is suggestive of a desultory and half-hearted attempt to locate Ziaolleh,” Mr Johns said.

“SC Flitton was disciplined for his part in this tragic saga (and) in my opinion his conduct was deserving of censure.”

UNHEARD

The Abrahimzadehs, meanwhile, fell through the cracks of police’s 131 444 call centre thanks to its flawed approach and lack of appropriate training.

Upon moving to a safe house, the family discovered its electricity had not been connected and Zahra, fearing for her life, had a panic attack.

“What do you want me to do?” asked the civilian call centre operator.

“I suggest you try going to a hotel or call Crisis Care.”

A month later, Zahra saw her brother-in-law parked outside the safe house and, Mr Johns said, became “petrified that she would be killed”.

Arman called a domestic violence counsellor who called police, telling operator Kelly Van Dongen that she was “just wanting to flag this with you guys”.

“We don’t have any control about flagging a certain address,” Ms Van Dongen replied.

“We don’t deal with any flagging of addresses here.”

Mr Johns found Ms Van Dongen became so inexplicably fixated on the word “flagged” — believing it to be a specific police procedural term — that she missed the point of the call.

“I find it utterly bizarre that any reasonable person could have interpreted (the call) as a piece of police jargon,” he said.

“The remarkable obtuseness of Ms Van Dongen ... is so concerning that the situation should never be allowed to repeat itself.”

Arman and Atena also had to deal with the stress of seeing their father during his mandated custody visits with Anita.

Ziaolleh took these opportunities to proclaim he would have his revenge, that “everyone has their limits” and, if he reached his, they had “been warned”.

He even taunted them that he had not been arrested which, Mr Johns said, was “was clearly a factor that gave him a sense of security and bravado”.

The siblings reported these threats to Senior Constable Ian Thomas at Netley Police Station — who decided Ziaolleh’s words did not constitute a threat.

Mr Johns singled this moment out as a failure that perhaps could have prevented Zahra’s murder, had the threat been acted upon and followed by a concerted arrest effort.

Ziaolleh, a man whose arrogance needed no bolstering, was by this time so emboldened by his continued freedom that he put his final plan into action.

UNRESTRAINED

On March 9, 2010 — 13 days before the murder — Ziaolleh asked his restraining order be varied so he could attend the Persian New Year Festival at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The restraining order was being handled by police’s Port Adelaide Criminal Justice Section who, like their peers, had been unimpressive in their dealings with the Abrahimzadehs.

An affidavit written in support of the order came in at just three pages, compared with the 57-page volume, filed with the Family Court, that outlined Ziaolleh’s reprehensible history.

On that day in March, Ziaollehs’s lawyer promised the Port Adelaide Magistrates Court his client would not approach or communicate with Zahra if permitted to go.

However, as Mr Johns noted, there was nothing in the existing order preventing his attendance provided he stayed away from Zahra.

The application horrified Zahra and Arman but Sergeant Tina Smith thought it was a good idea.

She counselled them to accept it, believing the variation would strengthen the order — in truth, she had played right into Ziaolleh’s hands.

Mr Johns said Sergeant Smith had made an “extremely dangerous” decision.

“The great misfortune of this aspect of the case was that from Ziaolleh’s point of view, he was obtaining a concession from Zahra,” he said.

“It is important to remember the context here ... the single most important thing that might have discouraged Ziaolleh in his hubris and bravado, namely being arrested, (had) never happened.

“It would not be drawing a long bow to suggest that, at the time ... he was already planning to attack Zahra at the forthcoming Persian New Year event.”

“(Ziaolleh) should have been apprehended and arrested at a very early time ... he should not have been allowed the minor victory afforded him.”

That minor victory paved the way for Ziaolleh’s depraved triumph when, on March 22, he stabbed Zahra to death in front of 300 people including Atena.

For almost two years he would deny any wrongdoing, only to prove his cowardice a second time by buckling under cross-examination and confessing in the middle of his Supreme Court trial.

Yet he went to his prison cell — and his 26-year minimum term — still playing the victim, bleating about his in-laws and urging Arman to “be a man”.

UNACCEPTABLE

Having spent the better part of 70 pages detailing police’s abysmal treatment of the Abrahimzadeh family, Mr Johns made 10 recommendations.

They amounted to a call for a complete overhaul of the way SA Police treats cases of domestic violence, and for Premier Jay Weatherill to personally oversee the changes.

Mr Johns said trained solicitors should be handling police prosecutorial functions, while sworn officers — not civilians — should take any domestic violence-related calls on 131 444.

His criticism went all the way to the top including Deputy Commissioner Stevens’ concession, during the inquest, that SA Police’s actions were “disappointing”.

“It is my view that Deputy Commissioner Stevens has understated, by a considerable margin, the true nature of SAPOL’s performance in this case,” he said.

“To describe it as ‘disappointing’ simply does not go far enough ... the adjective ‘appalling’ would have been far more suitable.

“The SA Police slogan ‘keeping SA safe’ is a very good summary of SAPOL’s most important function ... at every level it was a hollow promise in the case of Zahra Abrahimzadeh.”

As police make their promised 50 changes to the handling of domestic violence cases, Zahra’s children are left to face a future without either of their parents.

Anita is now 16 and is, according to her brother, a source of endless positivity and optimism for her siblings.

Atena, 28, who suffered as badly as her mother did, is a portrait of quiet and refined strength, the few words she chooses to make public ringing with authority and wisdom.

Arman, 26, the most visible of the trio, is seeking to enter political life believing it a way to help others escape the pain and anguish that darkened his family’s life for so long.

That the children do not rail publicly about the inquest findings, nor file million-dollar wrongful death lawsuits, is not an indication that SA Police’s inaction has been forgiven.

That they have chosen not to hold Hern, Flitton, Thomas and their ilk personally responsible for Zahra’s death does not mean they are any less aggrieved.

It is instead a tribute to their decency, morality and personal courage — and to the woman who endured so much, for so long, in an effort to raise them out of their father’s shadow.