Coroners Court findings: Police failed to protect Gold Coast mother Tara Brown from ex-bikie partner

Police and frontline health workers had failed to respond appropriately when Tara Brown sought help before her brutal slaying by ex-boyfriend Lionel Patea, a coroner has found.

POLICE and frontline health workers failed to respond appropriately when Tara Brown sought help before her brutal slaying by ex-boyfriend Lionel Patea, a coroner has found.

Ms Brown was 24 when she died after sustaining shocking head injuries on September 8, 2015. Patea had followed her car and after crashing beat her with a water hydrant cover.

Tara Brown. Photo: Instagram

UNTOLD STORY OF TARA’S LAST DAYS

SPECIAL REPORT FIVE CHAPTERS: TARA BROWN STORY

In her non-inquest findings handed down on Wednesday, Deputy Coroner Jane Bentley detailed the failing by police officers at the Southport police station when Ms Brown arrived to make a DV complaint five days before her murder.

Two days after her death, the Bulletin revealed Ms Brown was turned away at the station.
It sparked an internal police investigation by Ethical Standards Command.

While then-Gold Coast acting Chief Superintendent Michelle Stenner said at the time reports Ms Brown had been turned away from the station were “innacurate”, Ms Bentley found “police officers at the Southport station failed to respond appropriately to Ms Brown’s complaint”.
Patea is now serving two life sentences for the murder of Ms Brown and Gold Coast father Greg Dufty.

“Whilst it is impossible to determine whether the tragic outcome for Ms Brown would have been avoided if QPS had addressed the issues adequately, it is clear that Ms Brown was not assisted as comprehensively as she could have been had the information provided to QPS been dealt with appropriately,” Ms Bentley said in her findings.

Tara Brown. Photo: Instagram

But the Coroner accepted that Mrs Brown’s death, which led to reforms including the Not Now, Not Ever Report, meant significant improvements had occurred since in DV policing.

Ms Bentley believed the reforms meant an inquest into Ms Brown’s death was not required.

The Deputy Coroner found the following Queensland Health failings:

• Ms Brown’s disclosure at her first antenatal appointment that she experienced anxiety in her relationship was not followed up at subsequent appointments.

• Staff witnessed domestic family violence whilst Ms Brown was in labour but made arrangements for Patea to be present at the birth although it was known that his presence was a breach of a current domestic violence protection order and did not contact police.

Ms Bentley revealed the shift supervisor working the night Ms Brown attended the police station and asked for help was unaware of a DV framework put in place that year to improve police responses.

Lionel Patea and Tara Brown special feature. Photo: Supplied

Police officers who took Mr Brown’s complaint believed there was no evidence of domestic and family violence despite at least “27 intimate partner homicide lethality risk factors” present at the time of her death.
These factors included a prior history of domestic violence, including assaults when she was pregnant, threats with a weapon and to kill Ms Brown.
The Coroner referred to prior suicide attempts by Patea, control of Ms Brown’s daily activities, previous strangulation of the young mum and threats against family pets.

There was also evidence he had previously attempted to isolate her and taken her hostage.

Despite this history, the Coroner said: “The police who spoke to Ms Brown did not understand or identify these lethality factors and the associated risk to her.”

The findings also reveal the police officer who spoke with Ms Brown had such a poor understanding of the police database he could not access historical information about the pair.

“This was a missed opportunity to hold Mr Patea accountable for his actions in perpetrating DFV at an early state,” Ms Bentley said.

Lionel Patea and Tara Brown special feature. Photo: Supplied

Ms Brown’s solicitor had requested a meeting room be arranged at the Southport police station so that his client and co-worker could speak to officers about Patea in private as she was in fear due to him being a high-profile OMCG member.

Police refused to provide a room or speak to the lawyer.

“Ms Brown had seen a member of Mr Patea’s family outside the police station and was fearful that they were watching her and would report back to him that she had been at the police station but the constable would only speak to her at the front counter,” the Coroner wrote.

“He then separated her from her solicitor and her mother and did not speak to them or take statements from them although they had independently witnessed domestic family violence committed by Mr Patea.”

Ms Brown indicated her ex-partner police had sent her over 270 messages between 3am and 1pm including one calling her a “cold hearted dog” and threatened to upload explicit videos of her to Facebook.

Lionel Patea pleaded guilty for the murder of Tara Brown. Illustration: Jonathon Bentley

“He looked at some but considered that there were no direct threats of violence. He did not consider the fact that she had been sent hundreds of messages in the space of hours to constitute domestic family violence,” the Coroner wrote.

Ms Brown recalled how Mr Patea held scissors to her throat and threatened her but the constable’s recollection and reporting of events “differed dramatically from that of the solicitor and Ms Brown’s mother” who were at the station.

“He recorded that scissors fell out of Mr Patea’s pocket after he pushed her onto the bed and that it was not a violent push,” the Coroner wrote.

Ms Brown was reluctant to sign a statement about the events.
The constable spoke to his shift supervisor, a Sergeant, and both concluded that they had no evidence to confirm DV.

Ms Brown’s solicitor later said: “To my complete and utter bewilderment, the police did not consider that there was enough evidence to warrant them acting and they sent her away. It was his impression that they would not act on Ms Brown’s information unless she provided information about Mr Patea’s links to the Bandidos.”