More police failings admitted at inquest into death of domestic violence victim - The Guardian

A South Australian police officer has told an inquest he prioritised more dangerous domestic violence offenders ahead of locating a man who went on to murder his estranged wife.

Senior constable Richard Hern said the reports of assaults on Zahra Abrahimzadeh and her daughter Atena involved "a kick and a slap", offences which were horrible for family members.

"But in relation to other matters happening in the area at the time, there were more dangerous offenders who posed greater risks," he said on Thursday.

He said the Abrahimzadeh family were in a safe house, but "four other women were not safe" in unrelated cases occurring at the same time.

Hern was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh, 44, who was repeatedly stabbed by her estranged husband in front of 300 people at a Persian function at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Zialloh Abrahimzadeh is serving a minimum 26-year jail term for the March 2010 murder.

Counsel assisting the coroner has said the murder was precipitated by a "cascade" of police inaction and omissions, after Zahra and her children fled the family home in February 2009.

They made statements to police describing Abrahimzadeh assaulting his wife and eldest daughter and threatening to burn the house down with all the family inside.

Hern took over the case for eight weeks from the start of March 2009.

He agreed he did not put in train any action to have Abrahimzadeh spoken to, after he was told the suspect worked at a particular pizza shop.

He acknowledged making errors in the way he updated the police system with this information, adding: "I have learnt to change my way."

On 30 March, he recorded that he was unable to attend to the matter because he was working on high-priority cases, but testified he should have handed the case to his supervisor.

The state coroner, Mark Johns, commented that if Abrahimzadeh had happened to turn up at the officer's desk when he was looking at his file, he would have been able to deal with the matter.

"But beyond that, it was not going to happen?" he asked.

"It is the way it did happen, not the way we wanted it to happen," the officer replied.

The inquest is continuing.