SA Coroners Court will hold an inquest into Families SA’s involvement with the victims of the 2016 Hillier triple murder

Just one week before the fifth anniversary of the Hillier triple murder, the Coroners Court has confirmed it will convene an inquest into the tragedy.

The involvement of Families SA in the lives of a mother and two children who were murdered at Hillier will be examined by a coronial inquest, just days after the tragedy’s fifth anniversary.

The Advertiser can reveal that, on June 8, the Coroners Court will begin a four-day inquest into the deaths of Adeline Yvette Wilson-Rigney, Amber Rose Rigney and Korey Lee Mitchell.

It will examine the family’s interactions with Families SA staff prior to their deaths, and institutional responses to mandatory notifications of alleged abuse and neglect.

It will further examine the agency’s actions toward Ms Wilson-Rigney’s eldest son, who was with his grandparents at the time of the murders and so survived.

During the trial of murderer Steven Graham Peet, the Supreme Court heard Families SA staff were outside the property either immediately before, or during, the May 2016 crime.

Korey Lee Mitchell, left, his mother Adeline Yvette Wilson-Rigney, centre, and sister Amber Rose Rigney, right. Picture: Supplied by Ms Wilson-Rigney’s family.

The trio were murdered just 13 months after a damning 2015 coronial finding that Families SA had failed Chloe Valentine.

Chloe, 4, died three years earlier due to the criminal neglect of her mother and her mother’s then-boyfriend.

Child protection workers, the coroner found, missed numerous opportunities to intervene and prevent Chloe’s death.

Amber Rose Rigney.

Korey Lee Mitchell.

On Friday, Amber and Korey’s paternal grandmother, Janet Wells, told The Advertiser her family “wanted answers” to questions that had plagued them for half a decade.

“After the inquest into the death of Chloe Valentine, the Coroner said this should never happen again – and then it did, to our kids,” she said.

“We want answers, and we want to make sure there’s not another little Korey or little Amber out there, in the (child protection) system, still to come along.

“It’s devastating to do all you can to save a child, to lose them, and then to see it happen to another family – absolutely devastating.

Peet, 35, murdered Ms Wilson-Rigney, 28, following an argument and then bound and killed Amber, 6, and Korey, 5, to hide his crime.

He was jailed for at least 30 years – increased to 36 years on appeal – after delaying his trial with baseless claims of having slipped into an “automaton” state.

Convicted murderer Steven Graham Peet.

The court heard expert evidence Peet formed the intent to kill Ms Wilson-Rigney the day before the murders, and would have killed the Families SA workers had they interrupted him.

Following the trial, Ombudsman Wayne Lines conducted an inquiry into Families SA’s role in the trio’s lives and produced a report.

He found at least 11 reports had been made about the family prior to their deaths but were dismissed, which he “simply could not understand”.

Mr Lines said Families SA “neglected or ignored a succession of opportunities” to save the children, and that “no reasonable person” could have concluded they were not at risk.

Ms Wells’ husband, Steve Egberts, told the Supreme Court that child protection workers had lied to him about their interactions with his eldest grandson, whose name is suppressed.

The inquest is slated to run for four days and will hear evidence from staff members at the Department for Child Protection.

Learn more about the Hillier triple murder on the “Just Lawful” podcast, with Sean Fewster and Daniel Panozzo.