Doreen Langham inquest: Disciplinary action recommended against six officers

Disciplinary action has been recommended against six cops who dealt with domestic violence murder victim Doreen Langham. It comes as the inquest into her death saw video of her telling police about threats against her life six days before she died.

Disciplinary action has been recommended against six cops who had interactions with domestic violence murder victim Doreen Langham, including one who had a ‘complete misunderstanding’ of DV laws.

The recommendations were revealed by a police internal investigator at an inquest into the horrific deaths of Ms Langham and her ex-partner Gary Hely in a Browns Plains townhouse fire in February last year.

Ethical Standards Command investigator Detective Sergeant Anthony Bradbury told the inquest that he had recommended disciplinary action against six officers who had responded to Ms Langham’s calls for help.

They included two officers who the inquest heard had briefly door knocked Ms Langham just hours before the fatal fire in response to her final Triple 0 call - but went to McDonald’s when she didn’t answer.

Det Sgt Bradbury said two senior constables who were supervising rookie officers were referred to senior police for action, while the others were recommended for “local management resolution”.

Doreen Langham talks to police at her Browns Plain unit six days before her death.

One of the senior constables who had visited Ms Langham two weeks before she died had “a complete misunderstanding of domestic violence legislation” and her officer-in-charge was contacted immediately because of the “risk”, Det Sgt Bradbury said.

He said Ms Langham’s death was treated as a “death in police operation” because of her numerous interactions with police.

On Wednesday, the inquest heard Ms Langham begged police for help at least 20 times in the days before she was murdered but was “basically told to go away and don’t come back”.

Criminologist Kerry Carrington, who prepared a 40-page report on the tragedy for the Coroner, said police had failed Ms Langham “at every turn”.

“There was just error after error - it was a calamity of errors,” she told the hearing.

The inquest today also heard that Hely had seen his doctor about ‘anger issues’ six months before the tragedy and was referred to a psychologist and later put on a mental health care plan.

The doctor said Hely had ‘self-diagnosed’ his anger problem ‘which had been continuing for a while and (was) affecting his relationship’.

“He wanted to get better and repair himself,” the doctor said.

Under cross-examination by Laura Reece, the barrister representing Hely’s family, the doctor said Hely had disclosed he was using cannabis but not a suicide threat he had reportedly made in September 2020.

Earlier, the inquest heard that a cop called to investigate multiple domestic violence breaches in the lead-up to the tragedy told the court he did not take the breaches as seriously as he might have because Hely was leaving Ms Langham flowers and had a key to her Browns Plains townhouse.

The officer said at the time he regarded the breaches as “quite minor” and a case of “advances of love rejected”.

Deputy Coroner Jane Bentley is probing the apparent murder-suicide on February 22 last year and the adequacy of the police response to Ms Langham’s repeated pleas for help, including a final Triple 0 call just hours before the fatal fire.

Doreen Langham died in a fire at her home at Browns Plains.

The inquest heard Senior Constable Matthew Down and another officer were called to Ms Langham’s townhouse on February 16 after she called Triple 0 to report Hely was at her complex, having again breached the DVO.

In body-worn camera footage played to the court, an at-times tearful Ms Langham told the officers that Hely had warned her she had three weeks to live, obtained her new phone number and left her a rose.

Sen Const Down said Ms Langham “seemed quite jovial” and “to me she didn’t seem fearful”.

He said while she was emotional, she was also “laughing and talking at the same time so it’s hard to read her”.

“I guess I was struggling to read the situation,” he told counsel assisting the Coroner, Ben Jackson.

Sen Const Down said based on his interaction with Ms Langham, he “didn’t see it as urgent” to locate Hely who had no fixed address and was living out of his car.

Ms Bentley remarked that nobody had arrested Hely because ”nobody was looking for him”.

“No-one was intending to go and arrest him so it didn’t matter how many times he breached the order,” she said.

Doreen Langham’s former partner Gary Hely.

Sen Const Down said he and other police were shocked on learning how what he saw as a case of “advances of love rejected” had turned deadly.

Asked what he would have done differently now, he said he would have put out an alert for Hely’s vehicle and asked for him to be tracked down via his mobile phone.

“Obviously looking back, there’s more that I could have done,” he told the inquest.

Forensic pathologist Dr Christopher Day told the hearing he could not accurately determine the cause of Mr Langham’s death because of her severe burns but she did have a lacerated spleen which may have been caused by “moderate to severe blunt force trauma”.

She was probably still alive when she was “rapidly consumed by fire”, Dr Day said.

Under cross-examination by Paula Morreau, for Ms Langham’s family, Dr Day said she may have been doused with accelerant and he could not exclude the possibility that she was tied up, sexually assaulted and inflicted with a head injury.