CORONER SHINES A LIGHT ON TRAGEDY
It has been three long years since the tragic stabbing of Corey James Christensen, 37, and Thomas Ian Davy, 27, at Alva Beach. The two men were visiting the seaside town to enjoy the NRL grand final but their subsequent killing has been the subject of debate since that fateful night.
Yesterday, Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley delivered her findings saying the people employed to protect the community failed in their duty.
She said if police had appropriately responded to calls for help from the man inside the house, a terrified Dean Webber, two men would still be alive.
The shortcomings included a police officer who swore at and hung up on Dean Webber when he called Triple O.
It also included a detective who chose to complete paperwork before responding to the desperate calls.
Ms Bentley found that Mr Webber was “very much in fear for his life” when he stabbed both Mr Christensen and Mr Davy after they removed his door from its tracks trying to gain entry to his home.
Hewas acting in self defence
Both men thought Candice Walker, Mr Davy’s girlfriend holed up inside the house after being injured, was in danger.
The coroner found Mr Davy had entered the home when he was attacked by Mr Webber and Mr Christensen was either inside the house or in the doorway when he was stabbed.
She said the decision not to charge Mr Webber over the fatal stabbing was the right one.
He was acting in self defence.
The whole incident has been an avoidable tragedy and many of the people involved in the situation should take part of the blame.
But the biggest disappointment is the actions of the man answering the Triple O call.
Everyone has the right to be heard in those situations and every phone call should be taken on face value and not dismissed. What’s worse, wasting the time of officers or being partly to blame for the death of others?
1571
A Turkish fleet is destroyed by Christian forces commanded by Don John of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto.
1769
James Cook becomes the second European, after
Abel Tasman, to sight New Zealand. After claiming it for Britain, Cook maps the coast.
1798
George Bass and Matthew Flinders leave Sydney on the small sloop Norfolk to check that Van Diemen’s Land is separated from mainland Australia.
1817
The first
Methodist chapel in Australia is opened at Castlereagh, north of Penrith.
1830
Lieutenant Governor George Arthur, of Van Diemen’s Land, organises a sevenweek drive by police, soldiers, and settlers, the Black Line, to capture and confine all Aborigines. Only two are captured. Two others are shot.
1849
Edgar Allan Poe, 40, dies in Baltimore.
1858
Englishman William Jevons, who will become one of the world’s great economists, has a damning report published anonymously in Sydney on sanitation at The Rocks. He says lack of drains lets sewage flow into homes.
1854
Gold miner
James Scobie is kicked to death near the Eureka Hotel, Ballarat. This stirs resentment of authority that would culminate in the Eureka Stockade rebellion.
1916
Taronga Zoo opens at its present site. Animals cross the Harbour by flat-top barge from Moore Park.
1985
Palestine Liberation Front members hijack an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro. One passenger is murdered the next day.
2007
Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 48, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, is shot dead in Moscow.