Police allowed 9 minutes for a domestic violence assessment, inquest hears

Content warning: this article contains detailed descriptions of domestic violence.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers please note that this article mentions deceased persons.

Police officers responding to a domestic violence call-out took less than 10 minutes to assess that “nothing much happened”, a Northern Territory coronial inquest into the deaths of four Aboriginal women killed by their intimate partners has heard.

“I know that it says in the job text that there was threatening to hit the mother with a stick … and making threats to stab her, but on attendance if that situation doesn’t present to us then we obviously need to treat it with what’s in front of us,” Senior Constable Brendan Young told the Alice Springs Local Court via video link from Darwin.

Young was the on-duty officer who attended the May 16 2019 domestic violence call-out involving Kumarn Rubuntja and her partner Malcolm Abbott. In January 2021, Rubuntja was killed by Abbott after he repeatedly ran her over with a car.

The 2019 triple-zero call for help was made by Rubuntja’s 17-year-old daughter. She told operators that Abbott was intoxicated, had smashed a power box with a stick, was threatening to hit her mother, and had earlier made verbal threats to stab her mother with scissors that she believed were still in his pocket.

Following dispatch, Young and another attending officer, Constable Paul Henderson, spent nine minutes at Rubuntja and Abbott’s residence. They formally concluded that Rubuntja’s daughter was the one causing problems.

The report filed by Young in the police real-time online management information system (PROMIS) said that Rubuntja’s daughter’s claims that her mother and Abbott were arguing did not check out.

“When both family violence participant one and two [Rubuntja and Abbott] were spoken to … they were both calm and advised that they were not arguing, although Abbott did advise that he hit the power box with a stick,” the entry read.

“The daughter then presented at that location again causing problems by yelling at both Kumarn and Mr Abbott. It would appear from attendance that it was her [the daughter] that was the problem.”

Young repeatedly said that he could not remember the call-out and therefore could not comment on “what was and wasn’t done at the time of attendance”, other than that the job could have been “better detailed”.

In the overview report prepared by Detective Superintendent Kirsten Engels and provided to the inquest, Engels identified Young’s response as deficient because of his failure to interview both Rubuntja’s daughter (the complainant) and her much younger brother who was also present, as well as his failure to inspect the damaged power box (indicative of aggressive behaviour).

“At that stage, the state of the power box would have had little relevance to me in terms of the domestic violence side of it and why we were there,” Young said.

Young also told the inquest that in line with general practice, he likely would not have reviewed the criminal and domestic violence history of relevant people prior to arrival. He said any checks done were “primarily for staff safety” to determine an appropriate response upon arrival.

Records from Crystal (police software that identifies which PROMIS records were accessed by responding officers) showed that, contrary to Young’s general practice, he did consult alerts listed for Abbott, Rubuntja and Rubuntja’s daughter.

Special Counsel assisting the Coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court that these alerts detailed Abbott’s extensive criminal history (including substantial periods of time in custody for manslaughter of one woman, stabbing of at least two other women, assault and breach of multiple domestic violence orders), Rubuntja’s long history as a victim of domestic and family violence, and her daughter’s ongoing exposure to violence.

“Does it give you any intel that would help you in this job?” Dwyer asked Young.

“It makes me aware that she’s been exposed to domestic violence in the past,” Young responded.

“That would suggest that she has been a victim of family violence. But in terms of the actual job, that probably wouldn’t give me any further information to advising what’s happening in a particular situation.”

Dwyer, the Rubuntja family’s lawyer Phillip Boulten SC, and Counsel for NT Police Dr Ian Freckelton KC made the case, through multiple rounds of questioning, that criminal and domestic violence history, destruction of property, raised voices and discrepancies between what’s said over the phone and what’s said in-person were all relevant to a domestic violence assessment.

“So can you appreciate now why she might have been raising her voice at her mother and the perpetrator?” Dwyer said. “And what do you think now then of having this entry in PROMIS that she began causing problems by yelling at them and that it would appear that it was her that was the problem?”

“I can’t comment, I just don’t remember,” Young said.

“But what do you think about it now?” Dwyer pressed. “It appears to be blaming the 17-year-old child that’s rung up asking for help because she’s extremely stressed because her mother is being attacked by someone who has previously killed a woman and attacked others.”

“That’s a really hard question to answer,” Young said.

“Can I suggest to you that it was completely fair enough?” Dwyer said.

The inquest also heard from Senior Constable Charneca Joachim, the officer who placed the July 2019 police alert on Rubuntja that she “may make false statements”.

On this occasion, Rubuntja herself called triple-zero on behalf of another woman who had been punched by her partner. Rubuntja reported that the man (who had a documented history of violence) was intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana and that a three-year-old child was also present.

When Joachim arrived with another attending officer, Constable Linden Beck, Rubuntja’s version of events differed from what she’d said over the phone: “We spoke to the complainant and then spoke to the other parties. It was found that the allegation of him striking [her] was false.”

In the police report filed post call-out, Joachim wrote that “Rubuntja owned up to lying about the assault”.

“Obviously, it stuck in my head that she was trying to get someone else in trouble,” he said.

Joachim, now stationed in Darwin, told the inquest that after listening to testimony from Tangentyere Council domestic violence experts Maree Corbo and Karmel Simpson on Wednesday morning (following his own testimony on Wednesday afternoon), he learned why victims of domestic violence might stay silent, might not properly articulate what’s going on, and which “trigger words” to keep an ear out for in the absence of heated exchange.

Simpson told the inquest that frontline respondents’ inability to identify domestic violence was creating routine failings in domestic violence responses.

“It can’t be moved to a domestic violence response when nobody is actually able to identify what family violence looks like,” she said, adding that this underscored the need for a co-respondent police and domestic violence specialist taskforce.

“Police look at the emergency, we look at what could happen,” Corbo told the inquest.

“Working together with our lens and the police lens … I can guarantee we would have picked it up about nine times earlier.”

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.