Police ‘missed opportunities’ to protect Noeline Dalzell from killer, coroner finds

The state’s top coroner says Victoria Police’s family violence unit “fell far short of best practice” in the days before a Seaford woman was stabbed to death by her abusive ex-partner.

Noeline Dalzell, 49, was killed by her abusive ex-partner James Fairhall at her Seaford home.

Victoria Police could have done more to protect Noeline Dalzell before she was stabbed to death by her abusive ex-partner in front of their three children, the state’s top coroner has found.

Coroner John Cain found “missed opportunities” and failures by the police’s newly-formed family violence unit following an inquest into the death of Ms Dalzell, 49, at the hands of James Fairhall at her Seaford home on February 4, 2020.

Fairhall, 49, had an extensive history of family violence against Ms Dalzell and had been released from jail three months before he chased her around the house and stabbed her in the neck.

At the time he attacked her, he was prohibited from going near her and the children.

Noeline Dalzell was chased around the house and stabbed in the neck by James Fairhall.

Judge Cain said police did not contact Ms Dalzell to alert her to Fairhall’s release from custody on November 6, 2019.

He said the response of the family violence unit from the day of his release to the day he murdered her “fell far short of best practice”.

“The FVIU added little or no value and represented a significant missed opportunity to actively engage with Noeline and other agencies to assess risk and develop a plan to keep Noeline and her family safe,” he said.

He said a high-risk management plan formulated by the FVIU in September 2019 was “inadequately completed”.

Despite this plan being created, he said the FVIU did not contact Ms Dalzell until January 23, 2020 – 12 days before she was killed.

Police told the five-day inquest in April the specialised family investigative units at the time were only within the first year of rolling out.

But Judge Cain said this was not a good enough excuse.

“It is reasonable to expect that even a newly created FVIU would have done more than passive monitoring of an identified high risk family violence perpetrator between (his release from custody) and her death,” he said.

The court heard police had responded to 27 incidents of family violence by Fairhall against Ms Dalzell between 2003 and 2019.

Fairhall had also been the subject of 21 warrants, predominantly relating to family violence offending.

A warrant had been issued for Fairhall’s arrest on November 21, 2019 when he failed to attend a corrections appointment — but it was never actioned by police.

Judge Cain urged Victoria Police to engage an external person to conduct an independent review of the effectiveness of its family violence units.

He recommended Victoria Police look at ways information sharing between front line police and FVIUs could be improved.

Victims should also be notified within 48 hours of their perpetrator being released from custody, he said.

Fairhall was convicted of murder and is serving a 25-year sentence behind bars.

Originally published as Police ‘missed opportunities’ to protect Noeline Dalzell from killer, coroner finds