Coroner to probe death of Australia’s most dangerous inmate Sarah Cheney

A coroner will probe the final moments of an offender who had been deemed so violent she was known as one of Australia’s most dangerous female prisoners.

Sarah Cheney died at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in August 2020. Picture: Mark Dadswell

A coroner will probe how a prisoner – dubbed Australia’s most dangerous female inmate – died in a maximum security women’s prison.

Sarah Cheney, who was also serving time for assaulting multiple nurses and guards, had been locked up for trying to murder a La Trobe University student in 2007.

The 36-year-old had been deemed so violent that when she was found unresponsive in her cell at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in August 2020, officers were first required to handcuff her before providing her with medical treatment.

Details of Cheney’s final moments were revealed at the Coroners Court of Victoria last week during a summary inquest into the prisoner’s death.

Sarah Cheney was jailed for eight years over the 2007 attack on Jemma Clancy at La Trobe University. Artwork. Illustration

The counsel assisting the coroner told the court that Cheney was checked every hour by officers due to her risk of self harm, who observed her at 8pm on August 29 as “awake and sitting on her bed”.

But when they returned an hour later, she was found unresponsive.

“A plan was formulated to enter the cell … and due to Sarah’s history of violence, she was restrained by officers (and) handcuffs were applied,” counsel assisting said.

When officers noticed that the colour had drained from her face, CPR was commenced and paramedics were called.

But Cheney could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 9.40pm, with asphyxia later confirmed as the cause of death.

She was being held in the Marrmak unit of the prison, where she could be provided 24-hour psychiatric care and rehabilitative treatment for her schizoid personality disorder.

Five days before her death, Cheney’s risk of self harm was downgraded and it was decided she would only need to be checked on every hour, instead of every 30 minutes.

Sarah Cheney was also serving time for assaulting multiple nurses and guards. Picture: Kylie Else

Liam McAuliffe, representing the Department of Justice and Community Safety, said numerous recommendations following Cheney’s death had already been addressed.

This includes items being removed from the kitchen of the unit which have the potential to cause harm.

Mr McAuliffe said Cheney’s case was “very unique” and “complex”, given her violent tendencies and the severity of her personality disturbances.

But he added that the level of mental health assessment and care she received was “certainly consistent and consistently of a high standard”.

In 2009, Cheney was sentenced to eight years’ jail with a non-parole period of four and a half years for the attempted murder of 27-year-old student, Jemma Clancy, in the toilets of La Trobe University.

The science student had packed four steak knifes in her bag that day in May 2007 as she headed off to university.

She prepared herself in a toilet cubicle for the attack, lunging on Ms Clancy at the basin and stabbing her in the back at least twice.

Years later, in 2012, Cheney shared a smile with her prison nurse moments before she tried to strangle and suffocate her.

“I just wanted to hurt her,” Cheney told police afterwards.

“It’s just she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Ten days after the vicious attack on the nurse, Cheney assaulted an experienced female prison officer, grabbing her by the hair and repeatedly smashing her head into the floor.

Two weeks after that, she assaulted a male guard, while handcuffed, hitting him in the face.

In September 2013, Cheney pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury to the nurse as well as assaulting two prison officers, and was sentenced to further years behind bars.

Coroner Leveasque Peterson will hand down her findings at a later date.