Exclusive: Family calls for inquest, saying Wilkinson visited police ‘almost every day’ before she was murdered by her husband in 2021
The police are worse than useless.
Nooo. Like their cars say, they’re there to protect and to serve and-… Oh, I see how they may have slipped up on this one. And maybe in a few other incidents… Regularly… All the time…Okay, you have a point.
They should change it to “reject and swerve”.
Protect capitalist interests and serve the capitalist agenda. Steal from a wal mart? Multi unit response. Shoot up a school, light your wife on fire so she burns to death horrifically? Not worth the effort
Seems like false advertising. Cease and desist! If not, should be forced to add disclaimer everywhere, stating the fact that they’re not actually legally required to “protect and serve” anyone in particular. And will not be personally liable for any damages (like shooting your dog when they raid the wrong house).
They’d do well in consulting then!
They should take a page from senator and yell your attacking me, but add bullets to the mix, ya know?
Let’s just stick at the end of that phrase a needed word:
Money
Protect and serve the wealthy class
There was a story on reddit about a ex husband sending death threat letters and police said, “unless you’re being raped or dead, we can’t help you.”
Send those letters to a cops wife or daughter and I guarantee they do something
Those are just letters from the cop to their wife or daughter…
“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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Are you saying that police released him on bail?
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.
In that case then yeah they screwed up.
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.
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
When I tried to report my suspicions that my ex was abusing my kids, I was told by DCFS to stop stirring up trouble or I would lose custody.
Years later, my kids are old enough to be listened to, and the DA office still chose not to prosecute because it’s he-said-she-said. Both kids have mental health issues stemming from child abuse that I have to deal with on a daily basis, all while trying to juggle my mental health as a previous abuse victim from the same man.
And then they say that victims fail to report. Well, duh. It’s often safer not to.
My sister ended up losing custody for the same thing.
I begged her not to do it because I knew exactly how it would go. I said, “Seriously, you’re in a custody dispute. They’re going to treat you like you’re making this up. Wait. Be patient. I know it sucks. It just isn’t the right time for it.”
The kid is very autistic and he sits and yells at himself now, “You’re just bad Adam! You do this on purpose Adam! That’s for girls Adam! You’re not a girl Adam! You’re just a troublemaker Adam!” I wish I could remember what my mom told me he was yelling at himself about the other day, she was in tears.
I don’t know. It’s a sad situation. Her ex definitely has better resources for dealing with him (financially, which is a lot with autism as bad as his) but I can’t imagine him yelling criticisms at himself all the time if my sister didn’t lose him. He was allowed to express himself and dance and play dress up before. He don’t have that any more. Because he likes Disney princesses a lot and she had photographed him playing with dolls and things, they made a big deal about that in this small town.
Sad situation.
That poor, sweet child. We are failing our children in the guise of parent’s rights.
My sister has been through it, she really has.
The guardian ad litem hates her guts and has practically dragged her through hell.
When Adam was about 3 it really became clear that something was off with him. You couldn’t get his attention unless he wanted you to have it. He’d run in circles for long periods of time. I joined him once and I started running in the other direction and he lost his shit.
He started taking shirts and using them like wigs and singing Disney songs, and it was a huge leap in his development so my sister got him some wigs. It wasn’t just princess wigs, he had a bunch of them. Short hair, long hair, Halloween costumes as Batman, but he really gravitated toward the princess stuff. She didn’t put a limit on him or encourage one thing or the other. The ex said, “you’re gonna make him gay letting him wear that stuff.” My sister’s response was, “He isn’t going to have much of an opportunity for a sexuality, you’re overreacting.” And in truth, I can’t see him ever having a life where he’s going to be dating and things like that. It just isn’t going to happen. He communicates his needs, but he isn’t ever going to be able to be independent.
And even if he could, he makes his own decisions. When it’s time to pick out his clothes, he doesn’t try to wear dresses. It’s just an outlet for him while he plays. He understands that he’s just reenacting what he sees. He likes what he likes.
Well, once the guardian ad litem heard about that, it was 100% what she focused on. She said in court that my sister was encouraging him to be a girl and confusing him. She went in and photographed his costumes, purposely leaving out the cowboy and superhero stuff, the pompadour, the ninja turtles. She photographed the princess stuff and the dolls.
It’s a bummer. I’m not gonna lie, the first time I seen him twirling around singing “Let it Go” in a blonde wig, it made me uneasy. But seeing him smile and laugh when he usually sits expressionless was huge.
It sucks that we put so much into our roles in this world that a happy kid has to question his happiness when so many doors are closed to him already because of his condition. It really does.
“you’re gonna make him gay letting him wear that stuff."
I can’t understand how people can be this ignorant and stupid…
I always want to ask, “so the only reason you’re a straight man is because you played with GI Joe?”
Because that would explain a lot about why you protest so strongly.
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This is a great response that I’m gone a steal the next timee someone has an issue with my son carrying around an Elsa doll
You may have meant this more of an expression of shock, regardless it is good to think about the question. Hope you don’t mind if I run with it for the general discussion.
Babies and children have an innate desire to learn, which can be nourished or beaten down. If it’s beaten down long enough, “Ignorant” may become that child’s preferred state as they get older, for reasons of domestic safety and social norms.
This lack of respect for knowledge and the accompanying lack of knowledge makes things that are outside someone’s worldview threatening. They respond as if it was a threat and the cycle continues.
It is supposed to be the job of schools to rescue children from that cycle, by providing them with a space where they can be curious and not have to worry about a bigoted family member coming down on them. Sometimes they succeed but I think more often they don’t, especially in areas where bigotry is rampant and/or where schools are underfunded or beholden to antisocial policies and laws.
I’m on a long bus ride, hence the exposition :)
You go give that kid a hug on my behalf and tell him he’s allowed to like all the Disney princesses he wants right now goddamnit
And another hug from me too goddammit
“She reported breaches to the police five times in the week before she was murdered and all but one officer told her to basically go away and don’t come back and just come into the station once a week because you’re coming in too often to report breaches,” criminologist Kerry Carrington told the inquest.
“Stop being a victim of crime! It’s annoying!”
“Cop Shopping” is a gross term for them not doing their job. They never prevent or protect anything.
Wasn’t there some sort of ruling a while back that said the police are under no obligation to serve and protect, which is why that’s no longer on their cars and stuff?
The usa there have bern many rurlings stating it is legal for cops to do nothing.
Uvalde school shooting is one example.
Agreed, support 2A and depend upon yourself.
The article is about things that happened in Australia 🙄
And Australians have had massive incursions on their gun rights since 2020.
That’s because we don’t see using a gun as a right, just like we don’t see driving a car as a right. They’re both activities that are priviledges earned through training and licensing.
And as a result the number of school shootings is much, much lower than in the US.
Exactly, I bet her loved ones wished she had the right tools to defend herself. Lord knows the police won’t.
Eew keep your gross American opinions to yourself.
No, the 1A means I can share it as much as I want. Freedom of Speech is awesome!
The irony of you tooting about 1A, celebrating your “right” to free speech, based on your ability to post something in a forum where 1A doesn’t apply.
It’s delicious.
Well if you want seconds, I’m still posting.
celebrating your “right” to free speech
Offtopic: so these quotes mean you doubt that it is a right too?
1A doesn’t apply for what mods do, but it seems mods agree that his opinion belongs here.
1A does apply for him not being prosecuted for saying it anywhere. BTW, things like swatting gun rights’ supporters’ homes do in effect break 1A.
So there’s a valid combination where there’s nothing “delicious” in your meaning in his comment - that’s if he meant that people in some other countries are more reserved with their opinions online because of fear of being flagged by police. I’d say it has some merit - slippery slopes work in reality.
Also I think I’ve read something about Australia, refugees, detention and human rights activism of the level a bit more sinister than in US.
You make it sound like thats unique to the US and a foreign concept to the rest of the world.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you won’t face consequences of what you say.
Not saying it is unique, just stating my 1A rights mean I have the freedom to do so.
And we have the freedom to call you out on your American bullshit (that doesn’t even work in the US).
Ok, I appreciate the update. I don’t really take the opinions of foreigners seriously so it’s good to know where you stand.
The first amendment applies only to government action on your speech. It has nothing to do with your speech on a private website and it doesn’t apply outside of the US (even if you’d like to think the US owns the world).
Yeah buddy I’m still posting. Stifling free speech is never a good solution. Maybe you are intimidated by opposing opinions and need some kind of safe space.
I do not.
Oh look, an Australian denying reality in favor of ideology. Shocking.
US has the highest domestic violence / death by gun rates in the entire world.
There is no such thing as good guy with a gun. Look at the victory parade just last week. People with guns everywhere just ran away for their lives instead of shooting the bad guy with the gun they love boasting about.
The worst mass shooting in Canada in history was 12 dead. What’s the worst death toll in the US?
The last school shooting in Canada was about 20 years ago, when was the last one in the US?
If this Australian couple had guns, 90% chance she would have been shot and killed by beer husband instead of whatever means he used. The police should have done their jobs.
That is the reality.
The supposed tool to defend herself with would have been used to kill her even sooner.
If you need a gun in order to feel safe in your country, you live in a shithole.
Yeah! Because domestic abuse is totally not a thing in america. Oh wait.
Domestic abuse is a problem in the US. I believe in empowering victims to have every resource available to escape and defend themselves from abusers.
If only you supported education, more specifically geography, as much as you pretend to support the Constitution.
No I fully support the constitution and wish the amendments were universal human rights, not just American rights.
So you want more deaths in the world?
Well I don’t.
Any country where you need a gun in order to feel safe is a shithole.
Weird flex but ok. I suppose if you are privileged enough to stay in a country with no violence you should probably stay there.
For everyone else, we like our rights to self defense.
A populace with the ability to kill anyone with the press of a button isn’t free or safe - it’s fearful, which is a dangerous thing to be when you have a gun.
Gestures lazily at gun deaths per capita compared to the rest of the developed world.
There’s also the 13th - Slavery is fine so long as we criminalise you. Why the fuck would you want this, exactly?
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
The deification of the founding fathers - a bunch of slave owners and the like is deeply weird. They had some good ideas… and some atrocious ones.
Odd I have your username labeled as “Gone full ******!” Check your comment history we’ve done this dance before.
Defending slavery isn’t getting any less monstrous or dumb.
Lol, you never change WaxedWookie, full ****** is your thing.
wish the amendments were universal human rights, not just American rights.
No thanks. You can keep your constitution. Ours isn’t perfect either, but I prefer it to yours.
Fuck off. Australia doesn’t want or need your freedum bullshit.
She did.
Where the bald eagle swoops in and drops a loaded gun into her hands, yah.
Those of you who automatically dismiss self-defense out of hand: what is your method of self-defense, and why wasn’t it used in 1930s Germany?
Something something, hammer and nail
I love the duality of Lemmy users:
“Ohhh nooos we can’t depend upon the police!”
“Ohh nooos how dare someone suggest taking agency for their own safety ! 2A is baddd mmmkay!”
I think the overall sentiment is removing violence as an option for everyone, cops, citizens, and criminals alike
Guns as a thing in this world inherently create death and loss as a result of their existence, not in spite of it
It’s a nice sentiment, I too abhor violence. But the world we live in is just not that way. I prefer to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst in people.
Bark on about how your rights are being taken, maybe when you find your oppressor we can throw a gun in the mix and see who comes out victorious. Waah waah, the powers are holding me down. Let’s go get the state to allow more unrestricted access to fire arms, as that’s everyone’s solution to everything.
Im not sure where your rant came from. I’m not trying to throw a revolution. Just trying to protect me and mine.
https://gunsafety.ny.gov/domestic-violence Go to another thread with this savior attitude.
Are opposing opinions scary to you? Do you need a safe space?
So he could have shot her?
Let’s just set up a standoff where the husband, wife and one police officer all hold guns to each other. It’ll all sort itself out when the dust settles like the wild west. See I can come up with stupid politically motivated solutions too. Stupid, to say a gun will “fix” a situation involving domestic abuse. You hear that 2A’ers, THAT’S STUPID!
You did the ol’Reddit switcharoo. I gotta say it takes a special kind of animal to do that on a thread dealing with a domestic abuse victim.
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I would think they would love to hear freedom spread across the world. 2A rights are human rights.
Just here to keep the -69.
I’ve seen what Lemmy upvotes, I prefer your downvotes.
We’ll throw complaining about the calibre of people in the spaces you decide to frequent voluntarily on the pile with the rest of your dumb bullshit.
Are you stalking me Waxed Wookiee? Just an FYI, I don’t plan on paying rent for that tiny headspace of yours.
It’s all about you, isn’t it? Not as though I’ve been a presence in this thread or anything.
Best way to avoid me would be to stop posting such aggressively stupid bullshit.
Perhaps you may need your own safe space. But be assured you will find me where a Pro 2A view is needed.
Johnston tied Wilkinson to a clothesline and set her on fire on 20 April 2021.
Holy fuck what a monster.
It’s a shame he got married in the first place when so many better men are left out to dry.
Incel weirdo.
Please go to therapy to work out your weird issues with women.
Dude, you’re not a better man. MAYBE less violent, but still a massively manipulative moron if you think ANY of the shit you’ve repeated here is true. I thought SOME of that shit when I was a TEENAGER! You know what happened when I realized I was the one who sucked? I met great women! Quit blaming others for YOUR inadequacies! You’re a shit-stain on the male gender, just like that murderer.
People only say that, when they aren’t any better. “He/she should have chose me!”
The only people who think that way are exactly like this guy. Entitled.
ACAB
Yes. All cops are bastards, you can’t fight, and you don’t own a gun.
Who exactly do you expect to protect you in situations like this, then? The fairy-godmother?
I would expect police to help, but that didn’t happen, hence ACAB.
You’re just FULL of bad takes. Take the L and get off the internet. Or go watch another video from Andrew Tate that just EXUDES homosexual tension, while claiming to be aggressively hetero. I’m sure you love those.
Are you saying people who don’t rely on cops don’t own guns? I have news for you… The media is lying to you.
Days after Wilkinson was killed, Johnston’s lawyer told reporters that “obviously, no one expected this to happen”.
This fucking nonce’s very existence is an insult to all mankind.
A nonce is another name for a pedophile.
It doesn’t mean what you think it means.
In Australia it’s more akin to “an idiot, or fool”.
It’s not illegal to call them up every day and just say her name.
Via their non emergency number though
Of course.
A court has previously heard that Johnston tied Wilkinson to a clothesline and set her on fire on 20 April 2021.
Holy shit, I assumed it was an impulsive murder (not that that is good). But doing that to her? What a total piece of shit.
Never underestimate the shitty guys women are willing to marry.
While this guy was killing his wife, good men were killing themselves out of loneliness.
Good men like you who make domestic abuse ending in murder into a pity party about your loneliness?
This is a weird place to show incel behaviour my dude, this isn’t about you.
What are you talking about?
You’re blaming her for being murdered by saying she should have married a “good man”.
That’s pure unadulterated incel shit.
Blame the killer, and the police who enabled him, not the victim.
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Are you okay? Where’s your carer?
I’m fine. What’s your point?
I’m truly disturbed by this having as many likes as it does.
All y’all lil incels need to go to therapy.
The comment has been removed now. What did it say?
It was Intel nonsense blaming the murdered woman for not picking a nice guy and complaining about nice guys being lonely. You missed nothing by not being able to read it.
Thanks
-144?
Seriously, that shit helps a lot. Just having a knowledgeable party that’s kind of able to help calibrate and understand your own responses is very cathartic.
Wow. Way to victim blame the woman for marrying someone she assumed wouldn’t kill her. Like WTF is this incel logic? You’re not a good man killing yourself out of loneliness. You’re a douche bag who doesn’t see WHY they’re alone.
If she wasn’t attractive, he wouldn’t have even bothered responding.
Big incel vibes here.
It’s the men who complain about women picking bad guys who are the guys who mask their controlling behavior in “niceness.”
That’s what got me. I thought he was a good guy, but he was just an MRA idiot.
Fuck off incel
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It could be viewed more accurately as ‘never underestimate the power that emotional abuse and manipulation can have on a vulnerable person’. You’re not wrong exactly but I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. To me it makes it sound like you’re saying she should have known better than to let herself get murdered.
Hey look kids, it’s a fucking moron.
Holy. Shit.
I’ve no words!
I’ll take “Things only pathetic, misogynistic incels would think” for $600.
The cops don’t exist to protect people.
They exist to protect businesses.
This is in Australia, not the US.
US with kangaroos
This is such a daft statement.
Yes the police in question failed to protect this woman, it’s a complete failure, officers and management in question need to be investigated.
That said, police assist people with DV issues every day of the week. I’m sure the police station in question resolves 1000s of domestic callouts a year.
Thank you for this. If it wasn’t for one of the cops who responded to my 911 call, I’d still not realize I was being abused.
I’m getting real weary of Lemmy real quick. There doesn’t seem to be much actual thinking going on, just children trotting out the same tired thoughts in every thread.
Even an idiot can understand that yes, police do protect businesses, but they do also protect people. Yes, there are a lot of cops who DGAF, but there are also those who genuinely became police to help people. Yes, the US is a place that exists, but there are also many other countries who don’t have the same issues - for example in Australia I’ve found police to be more or less good, helpful people.
Eh, a lot of people get butthurt and downvote when reality doesn’t match their armchair ideals. It’s more of a comment on them and their ability to learn than on the comments they downvoted.
It’s disgusting as I had to do something similar in Australia before I could find someone to take my domestic violence case serious. Australia cops are a fucking sham when it comes to domestic violence. “Cop shopping”. I hope they rot for coming up for a shit term they coined for boasting about their incompetence. Fucking losers.
A lot of the time the cops are domestic abusers themselves. Have had family stalked and harassed by an AFP cop in the past, and just like you say the cops had no interest whatsoever.
“our job is to harass brown people, not to protect the public”
a friend of mine did the same thing before her domestic murder. the police (who are well funded in this town) did not want to take her seriously, and they did nothing. another friend helped her out and was subsequently murdered too.
Yeah, it can be extremely dangerous to intervene in domestic violence situations. IIRC, something like 50% of domestic violence related murders are actually bystanders who tried to stop the abuse.
Completely unrelated but I do believe this is my first rimjobsteve moment experienced out in the wild.
he was right to step in and help. i just wish the cops had done it…
Sorry you lost friends that way. Hopefully the asshole that did it never sees the outside of prison ever again.
it wouldn’t make a difference. He’s not going to kill anyone else
The system is designed to fail the vulnerable. Cops are domestic abusers, racists, and fascists. We need to develop ways to protect ourselves and our community. Wilkinson should have had an option other than the cops. She needed people who had been victimized in the past or at least would believe her and stood to protect her. Folks who would take turns keeping watch over her or give her and her kids a safe place to stay.
I don’t think the cops can be reformed but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep each other safe.
I suppose holding law enforcement to a higher standard than the rest of us would be a good start. Heck I’d settle for the same standard as the rest of us right now
That would be nice, but how? They have 50 years of excellent, unearned, PR. 20% of scripted television is about unrealistically wonderful cops. When a local government has a problem their first response is always to throw cops at it. Any time they get the slightest pushback they threaten to stop doing all the things the municipality thinks they’re doing. Every time a cop’s ability to do whatever they want, including nothing, is threatened a massive media reaction rises up to defend them.
That’s why I think we need alternatives. We need to replace cops. The people who solve problems cannot think of themselves as sheep dogs protecting the sheep from the wolves. Someone protecting a potential DV victim from assault might need a gun but someone handling traffic enforcement does not. People running welfare checks don’t need guns. People responding to a public mental health emergency almost never need guns.
Citation needed and Behind the Bastards cop episodes are excellent background if you’d like to know why I’m so jaded when it comes to cop reform.
You ever watch any of those cop shows? They’re not wonderful cops, they literally are walking examples of “ends justify the means” philosophies but with charismatic actors. The constitutional violations are myriad and disturbing, I’d almost call those shows fascist propaganda and maybe y’all should look up Dick Wolf and his standing in the republican party.
100%. Unrealistically effective is a better way to say it. Cops are bad at solving societal problems. Bad at solving murders, theft, and other crimes. However, those shows basically make the case that cops are the only ones capable of solving those problems.
Wilkinson should have had an option other than the cops.
She did. Arm herself and stay as far away from him as possible.
(Well, Australia.)
