Footage shows cops dismissing DV concerns days before woman’s death

The Territory Coroner has released footage of two NT Police officers appearing to dismiss calls for help from a Katherine woman five days before she was killed by her partner. SEE THE VIDEO HERE

THE Territory Coroner has released footage of two NT Police officers appearing to dismiss calls for help from a Katherine woman five days before she was killed by her partner.

The footage was released on the final day of an inquest into the death of the woman, referred to as Roberta at the request of her family, in the Darwin Local Court on Wednesday.

In the confronting body-worn camera footage, one of the officers can be heard asking what the man, Lorenzo Deegan, who would later be convicted of killing Roberta, had done.

When Roberta tells the officer that Deegan, who was on parole at the time, had been drinking, he responds dismissively “No, really? Lorenzo was drinking? That’s terrible”.

When Roberta continues, saying “He done this to me” while pointing to her lip, the officer replies “All that? Can’t see anything”, before the pair agree to “see if we can go find him then”.

In a second video, recorded after Roberta again called triple-0 later that night, a man answers the door, saying “I’m not calling”, to which the officer responds “She is”.

“It’s police again, do you not listen, I’ve said this to you like five times, if you don’t want us to come back, stop calling us,” he says.

“If you’re getting angry at us coming, stop calling, easy as that, I’m going to go now OK, stop calling, you obviously don’t want us here.”

Roberta’s sister, Julieanne Raymond and mother, Joy Mikamin, outside court. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Under questioning from Deputy Coroner, Kelvin Currie, Constable Andrew Schwede agreed the response was “incredibly poor and just not worthy of either your standards, or those of the police force”.

He also agreed that in hindsight, NT Police had been right to discipline him over the incident.

His partner, Constable Maverick Carver, told Mr Currie he was the senior officer on the night after having taken over supervision duties just five months after graduating from the police academy.

Const Carver said he would typically respond to upwards of 15 to 20 jobs, many of them domestic violence related, on any given evening, with the most on one night being 46.

“It was a bit early (to be the senior officer) because I’m still at the point where I was still trying to learn and then you’re responsible for someone who’s got less experience than you so it’s quite a difficult task,” he said.

In also taking the stand on Wednesday, Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole said it was “not uncommon” for supervising officers to have just six months experience on the job.

“Our members are highly trained, they undertake six months training, they have sufficient tools available to them on the road if they’re unsure,” he said.

“They’re given supervision by a Sergeant, there’s a watch commander and a Territory duty superintendent who can also be contacted if they’re unsure of their duties at the time.

“It’s not ideal but it is what we’re faced with.”

A photo of Roberta supplied by her family.

In his closing address to Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, Mr Currie said if the “horrific” case of Roberta’s death had “happened anywhere else, it would make national, possibly international news”.

“This is a story of a woman who was taken by force from one city, taken to another town, assaulted, effectively kept prisoner part of the time, and eventually belted sufficiently hard (that) she died,” he said.

“It’s something that should be taken incredibly seriously and sometimes one gets the feeling that it happens so often here that we become a little bit inured to the horrific nature of it”.

Ms Armitage will hand down her findings at a later date.

Killer takes stand at inquest into Top End woman’s violent death

A MAN who killed his partner by punching her so hard he ruptured her spleen before leaving her to bleed to death for more than an hour has taken the stand at an inquest into her death.

In his opening address on Tuesday, Deputy Coroner, Kelvin Currie, said Lorenzo Deegan was on parole for another violent assault when he killed the woman — referred to only as Roberta at the request of her family — in June 2019.

Mr Currie said Deegan had earlier been fined in February 2017 for beating Roberta unconscious before also punching and kicking an elderly Katherine man “as he lay defenceless on the ground”.

Deegan was sentenced to four years and seven months in prison for the assault that left the 72-year-old with a traumatic brain injury — and a lacerated spleen, which had to be surgically removed.

During the police investigation into that assault, Roberta told detectives Deegan had assaulted her again two days earlier, but had not reported it out of fear that Deegan would “bash her more”.

Lorenzo Deegan.

Mr Currie said the officers charged Deegan, but after Roberta twice failed to attend court, the charges were withdrawn and police took out a domestic violence order on her behalf.

Due to the failed prosecution, when Deegan was released on parole in March 2019, five months after the DVO expired, Roberta was not considered a “victim” and not alerted of his release.

He soon re-established contact with her, sending her a series of vile text messages, accusing her of cheating on him and threatening her with further violence.

“Roberta if you don’t come Katherine, I’m coming up there and I’m gona (sic) smash the f*** outta you, you motherf***er,” he wrote on April 12.

“Keep hanging around Darwin you dog, you wait Roberta I’ll be there.”

Within two months, Roberta was again living with Deegan in Katherine, where on June 13, he returned home in the early hours of the morning after a night of drinking.

“At about 7am, Roberta was seen to walk into the kitchen to take a bottle of water from the fridge,” Mr Currie said.

“It seems that shortly thereafter, Lorenzo punched her to the lower left side of her abdomen, causing a lateral fracture of the 11th rib and lacerating her spleen.”

By the time paramedics arrived at the house after 9am, responding to a triple-0 call from Deegan’s mother, Roberta had been dead for more than an hour.

Lorenzo Deegan took the stand on Tuesday.

In taking the stand, Roberta’s killer, Lorenzo Deegan, told Mr Currie he had learned lessons about anger management during his stints in prison, before and after her death.

Deegan said the lessons included taking deep breaths and walking away rather than resorting to violence, before Coroner Elisabeth Armitage took over questioning him about the night Roberta died.

“Why didn’t you walk away instead of hitting her?” she asked, but after a long silence, Deegan said he didn’t know.

“I was just angry,” he said.

In 2020, Deegan was handed a 10-year jail sentence over Roberta’s death, after pleading guilty to negligent manslaughter.

The inquest continues.