854
submitted 10 months ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/news@lemmy.world

Exclusive: Family calls for inquest, saying Wilkinson visited police ‘almost every day’ before she was murdered by her husband in 2021

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 209 points 10 months ago

"cop shopping" is also known as "finding a needle in a haystack" or "the one cop that will do the minimum of their job".

At the beginning of April 2021, police charged Johnston with four serious domestic violence offences against Wilkinson. He was given watch house bail.

In the weeks that followed, Wilkinson attempted to speak to police “almost every day” about her concerns in relation to Johnston, her sister, Natalie Wilkinson told the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2021, including allegations he had breached the conditions of his domestic violence order.

Another sister, Danielle Carroll, said at that time that Kelly had told police, “I am scared for my life, I am scared for my children’s life. We are not safe”.

[-] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I’m curious what the cops could have actually done given existing legislation.

Were they able to arrest and detain him because he was in breach of the AVO or can’t they do anything?

If they could have done something and didn’t then they should be held accountable.

If the law is written such that they couldn’t arrest him then I’m not sure what could have changed.

It’s a frustrating thing.

[-] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 68 points 10 months ago

This is such a weak argument. The police have a wide latitude in their discretion in the way they execute the law and almost no individual liability for any actions they take (e.g. murder, theft, rape, etc.), especially when they fear for their own lives or think someone may have broken an imaginary law that only exists inside their own head. But, when someone needs actual help and protection, suddenly their hands are tied by red tape? It's more than frustrating, it's straight up Orwellian doublespeak.

[-] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I don’t disagree with you in principle but I don’t want to have a situation where police detain people on the off chance they may commit a future crime.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

In this case though it could be argued that the police releasing him on bail was a mistake and the courts should have made the call.

[-] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

His point stands though.

For the same reason why people sit through the CSR saying to power cycle and check the cords... Everyone has red tape they know they have to go through for their jobs. Domestic abuse cases are especially under scrutiny. Hell in my state, they HAVE to arrest someone if they show up.

Almost all of these cases stand with a crux on 1st amendment issues. Until they receive direct threats with times and 'hows', then it's file a restraining order. For murderers though, it means nothing. Police aren't exactly funded enough to plant a cruiser in front of her house too unless they think it's imminent.

You could hire a bodyguard, but good luck if you're remotely poor.

There's also small merit to saying well go get a gun! You have to sleep sometimes. Only so many cameras you can put up in your home and you miss a notification.

Few people can afford a name change and just up and move. Most can't even do that due to the legal system restricting where you can if you have children with them.

Simply put, someone who's not full on dumb can murder anyone if they really wanted to. It's just something every society hates thinking about.

[-] cogman@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

With weekly break-ins, they could have watched the place and arrested whoever is breaking in for, you know, the crime of breaking and entering. They could have further gotten a protective order against the dude and then watched the place again after he left jail.

She didn't report the break-in once.

[-] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 13 points 10 months ago

If you are charged, the police may release you on bail from the watch-house. Otherwise, they must take you to court as soon as possible and release you if the court grants bail.

He was found sufficiently suspicious/liable enough in the initial investigation to warrant being arrested and given a formal charge, but still released on bail.

If police charge you with an offence, they must give you a notice to appear or a full charge sheet (also called a bench charge sheet), which provides details of the charge. Police will provide the full charge sheet if they arrest and formally charge you at the watch house.

They saw what he was doing to her, agreed enough to charge him with a crime, and then released him, with details of her complaints to the police in hand. DVO + this new offense should have been obvious that he has reoffend - the police’s behavior was completely negligent

[-] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Are you saying that police released him on bail?

[-] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Article clearly says:

At the beginning of April 2021, police charged Johnston with four serious domestic violence offences against Wilkinson. He was given watch house bail. In the weeks that followed, Wilkinson attempted to speak to police “almost every day” about her concerns

I’m not a lawyer, nor an Australian lawyer, but a quick search seems that “watch house bail” is the term for “released on bail/bond” equivalent - hence the prior link to the Queensland government website.

[-] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

In that case then yeah they screwed up.

[-] Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

They could've arrested him

In the weeks that followed, Wilkinson attempted to speak to police “almost every day” about her concerns in relation to Johnston, her sister, Natalie Wilkinson told the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2021, including allegations he had breached the conditions of his domestic violence order.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I know someone who helps run a series of shelters, where people in fear of abuse can hide. It’s not the cops, but cops sometimes send people their way. They have an ever-changing set of safe houses, and my friend can’t even say where she works in case one of the locations gets out.

I have no idea how they connect with victims though

this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
854 points (98.4% liked)

News

23659 readers
3091 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS