{"id":586758,"date":"2026-04-05T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586758\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:20:08","slug":"sisters-of-officer-killed-by-dezi-freeman-plan-to-sue-police-for-negligence-lawyer-says-australian-police-and-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586758\/","title":{"rendered":"Sisters of officer killed by Dezi Freeman plan to sue police for negligence, lawyer says | Australian police and policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sisters of Neal Thompson, one of the two police officers shot dead by Dezi Freeman in Porepunkah last August, plan to sue Victoria<\/a> police for negligence after an inquest into the officers\u2019 deaths, their lawyer says.<\/p>\n

Police accountability lawyer Jeremy King, who is representing Dianne Thompson and Lois Kirk, confirmed on Sunday that the sisters would bring a negligence claim against Victoria police after the conclusion of a coronial inquest. A date for the inquest has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

According to the ABC<\/a>, the legal action relates to the decision not to deploy specialist forces to execute a search warrant against Freeman last year.<\/p>\n

Freeman was shot dead<\/a> at an isolated property at Thologolong in Victoria\u2019s north-east on 30 March, after seven months on the run after allegedly killing Thompson, 59, a detective leading senior constable, and senior constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 34, and seriously injuring a third on 26 August last year.<\/p>\n

The officers were part of a group of 10 local police and members of the sexual offences and child abuse investigation team serving a search warrant against Freeman.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s sisters wrote a letter in December to the Victoria police chief commissioner, Mike Bush, in which they described being \u201cignored\u201d by police, saying they had not received adequate support or updates on the progress of the investigation into Freeman\u2019s whereabouts after their brother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected grief, we expected heartbreak, but we did not expect to feel invisible,\u201d they wrote in the letter, seen by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment we were informed of Neal\u2019s death by a phone call instead of in person, it felt as though the magnitude of the loss had not been understood.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, we were left alone in a room that with news that only shattered us. No support arrived, no face we could speak to, no hand on our shoulder. Only silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the joint letter, one of the sisters described attending the coroner\u2019s court to see their brother\u2019s body. \u201cNo one knew who I was. I had to say the words myself \u2013 \u2018my brother is dead, and I am his sister.\u2019 That moment will stay with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter said the sisters felt \u201cinvisible\u201d and \u201cunseen\u201d, including at Thompson\u2019s funeral, where they and other relatives were sat away from the front of the chapel, and were yet to be told about being reimbursed for the cost of attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur grief is heavy, but it is made heaver by how alone we have felt in it,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not write this letter with anger. We are proud of Neal, we always will be. But we are also heartbroken that we have been left feeling abandoned in a time of tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Victoria police said it \u201cacknowledges that the past seven months have been an incredibly difficult time following in the incident in Porepunkah, particularly the families of the two police officers killed\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said it had been in contact with family members of Thompson, De Waart-Hottart and the third officer, \u201cand have taken every step to ensure they are kept up to date and that support services are in place for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we also acknowledge some issues raised by the sisters of detective leading senior constable Neal Thompson and police have met with them directly as a result of a letter they sent to the chief commissioner,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile every effort is made to provide timely updates to all families involved, we are always conscious of the need to manage ongoing investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sisters of Neal Thompson, one of the two police officers shot dead by Dezi Freeman in Porepunkah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-586758","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\/586758","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=586758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}