Oops.

Kelly Wilkinson was turned away from Southport police station and told to “cool off, give Brian a break” while seeking help just four days before her estranged husband, Brian Earl Johnston, burned her to death in 2021, an inquest has heard.

The allegation was made in an extraordinary 11th hour submission by the lawyer acting for her family as they successfully applied to adjourn the coronial inquiry to hear additional evidence about the allegation.

Their lawyer, Mitch Rawlings, said Queensland police’s claim during the inquest that 12 April 2021 was the last time Wilkinson engaged with police was false. He said that she also attended the police station on 16 April – four days before her murder – but that there is no record of this attendance in the internal police system.

“One of Kelly’s sisters drove her to the Southport police station, where she remained in the car while Kelly got out of the car with some documents,” Rawlings said. “She returned to the car moments later and complained that the person at the front desk turned her away saying words to the effect of, ‘Just cool off, give Brian a break,’ words to that effect.”

To be fair, the police must have to make decisions of that kind all the time, and treating every irritable quarrel as a step away from murder would have its downsides. Hindsight is 20/20 doncha know.

Thursday was scheduled to be the final day of a three-day hearing into Wilkinson’s 2021 murder, when Johnston stabbed her, doused her with petrol and set her on fire at her Gold Coast home.

I guess because she didn’t give him a break?

The coroner has heard that Wilkinson contacted police on four occasions before her murder, not including 16 April.

She was flagged as a high-risk aggrieved party, meaning “proactive police response to risk is recommended”. But a referral to a specialist domestic violence liaison officer was never opened, and she never had a safety plan prepared.

And her risk turned out to be high indeed.