{"id":518443,"date":"2026-03-04T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518443\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:21:18","slug":"cops-missed-chances-before-mum-set-on-fire-by-husband-brian-earl-johnston-inquest-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518443\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops ‘missed chances’ before mum set on fire by husband Brian Earl Johnston , inquest hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police<\/a> missed crucial opportunities to protect a young mother who was murdered after her estranged husband was incorrectly granted bail, a coroner has heard.Mother-of-three Kelly Wilkinson was repeatedly stabbed, doused with petrol and set on fire by Brian Earl Johnston on April 20, 2021 at her Gold Coast<\/a> home.<\/p>\n

Johnston had been released on bail nine days earlier after being charged with four counts of sexually assaulting Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

\"Mother-of-threeMother-of-three Kelly Wilkinson was repeatedly stabbed, doused with petrol and set on fire by Brian Earl Johnston on April 20, 2021. (GoFundMe\/Kelly Wilkinson)<\/p>\n

An inquest into the 27-year-old’s death heard Johnston had incorrectly been granted bail by police rather than having to argue before a magistrate for release.<\/p>\n

Granting Johnston bail was one police failure identified in an internal review, Queensland<\/a> Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher heard today.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Paul Fletcher, the officer in charge of the Gold Coast Vulnerable Persons Group, said the police involved had missed opportunities.<\/p>\n

“Overall it appears they followed procedures that were outlined for them to do but there were areas they could improve on as well,” he told Southport Coroners Court.<\/p>\n

The senior detective agreed with previous evidence that Johnston’s four rape charges were serious offences that required him to prove to a magistrate he should not be further detained.<\/p>\n

“Would any of this have been outcome-changing?” Gallagher asked.<\/p>\n

“That’s a hard question. There are a lot of unknowns,” Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman found dead in a Gold Coast backyard with burns to her body has been identified as Kelly Wilkinson. (Facebook)<\/p>\n

Some of the officers involved had since been required to take part in remedial training, the inquest was told previously.<\/p>\n

Police<\/a> also failed by incorrectly filing Wilkinson’s complaint about Johnston allegedly breaching a protection order, which made it much harder for other officers to find details about her case.<\/p>\n

Officers were first made aware of Wilkinson’s complaints about domestic violence 23 days before her murder and later visited her home to organise for her to make a statement.<\/p>\n

Senior Constable Julien O’Rourke said he assessed Wilkinson to be a “medium risk”.<\/p>\n

“She said she had been receiving messages from a work colleague of Johnston … she said she was scared,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fletcher said he was unsure whether the new generation of tablets issued to police since Wilkinson’s death could read PDF files.<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast vulnerable persons unit now had more officers and Queensland police as a whole were now better able to respond to domestic violence victims, the coroner heard.<\/p>\n

“We are always improving,” Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

The inquest is due to finish tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Support is available by calling 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732, National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service on 1800 211 028, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Men’s Referral Service 1300 766 491.<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police missed crucial opportunities to protect a young mother who was murdered after her estranged husband was incorrectly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-518443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}