Man who stabbed ex to death was sleeping on her couch despite intervention orders

A woman let her killer sleep on the family couch — despite being banned from the home — because he had nowhere else to go after being freed from prison.

The Coroner’s Court is probing systematic failures that led to Noeline Dalzell’s death. Picture: Supplied.

A killer who stabbed his former partner to death had been sleeping on her couch for weeks despite court orders that banned him from being anywhere near her.

Three months before James Fairhall chased his ex, Noeline Dalzell, around her Seaford home with a knife, he was released from prison without stable accommodation.

The Coroner’s Court is probing systematic failures that led to Fairhall staying in the lounge of his ex for six weeks despite intervention orders, before he murdered Ms Dalzell on February 4, 2020.

Fairhall, then 47, stabbed Ms Dalzell once in the neck despite her attempts to flee from him.

She ran injured to the safety of the home of her neighbours, who desperately tried to keep her alive, but the 49-year-old died at the scene.

Noeline Dalzell was killed by her former partner, James Fairhall. Picture: Supplied

A coronial hearing on Monday was told that Ms Dalzell had been “tolerating” Fairhall staying at her home since Christmas - six weeks before her death - because he had “nowhere else to live”.

State Coroner Judge John Cain said the very day Fairhall was released from jail on November 6, 2019, there were calls to police from her Seaford home, and those calls continued until February.

His Honour said officers had repeatedly attended but couldn’t track down Fairhall, who was “coming and going” from the property.

Family violence orders didn’t “appear to have been enforced” and there weren’t “protective measures in place to protect Noeline”, Judge Cain said.

The root of the issue appeared to be that upon release from custody, “Fairhall should have had somewhere to go to live that wasn’t the last resort living at Noeline’s house”.

A joint report between the Department of Families, the Department of Justice and Community Safety and Victoria Police will piece together what went wrong.

“At first glance, it looks as though a number of opportunities were missed,” Judge Cain said.

“I think this family is looking for some answers around that - I’m certainly looking for some answers around those issues.”

Fairhall was sentenced last year to 25 years behind bars, with a minimum of 18.5 years.

The Supreme Court earlier heard he killed Ms Dalzell in a jealous rage after she’d started a romantic relationship with a school friend, Kevin Blain.

The Coroner’s investigation into systemic failures had been stalled while the murder trial was on foot.

The case will return to the coroner’s court in August.