Victoria’s anti-corruption commission fundamentally failed a woman who was abused by her police officer spouse, with delays in the handling of her case meaning a second officer who leaked her escape plan could not be prosecuted, a report has found.
The Victorian Inspectorate, the body responsible for overseeing the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac), tabled a special report to parliament on Tuesday regarding the case of a woman known as Emma.
It said Ibac only appeared to take Emma’s case seriously after she wrote directly to the Ibac commissioner and told him she had taken her concerns to the media.
But in an extraordinary response, Ibac said that while it did not want to detract from Emma’s story, it had considered taking legal action against the inspectorate in relation to the report because of “jurisdictional error”, only deciding against doing so because it considered it would “not be in the public interest for two of Victoria’s major integrity institutions to be involved in litigation … at the public’s expense.”
Police first became aware that Emma was being abused by her former husband, senior constable Darren Hanegraaf, in 2018. Hanegraaf pleaded guilty to family violence offences in February 2020.
Emma had serious concerns about Victoria police’s handling of her case, including that confidential information she had provided to a family violence officer about a plan for her and her children to escape her husband interstate had been given to her abuser.
She made a complaint to Ibac, the body tasked with police oversight in Victoria, in November 2018. A second complaint was also made to Ibac about Victoria police about two years later.
Rather than investigate, Ibac referred both of these complaints back to Victoria police’s professional standards command, which handles the force’s internal investigations.
The inspectorate found Ibac’s referrals had serious consequences, including negative impacts on Emma and her children’s welfare, and meant she did not receive a better police response in the context of serious and ongoing family violence.
It also found that the referrals meant that the possibility of corruption was not pursued; that serious conflicts of interest at Victoria police were allowed to affect the independent investigation process; and that the alleged unwillingness of police to act against their own was effectively overlooked.
“The VI views these consequences as a fundamental failing of the integrity system,” the report found.
“The issues with Ibac’s handling of Emma’s case are so serious and long running, and the consequences so devastating, that it is worthy of consideration and public comment.”
Emma, who has previously used other pseudonyms including Michelle and Jay when detailing her experiences in the media, told Guardian Australia that she was dismayed by Ibac’s response to her complaint, and the fact it had still failed to apologise.
The lawyer with more than two decades’ experience has started a support group for the partners of abusive police officers.
“Ibac has shown a complete lack of insight, remorse and empathy in effectively saying they would do the same thing again if my case came across them again, despite the catastrophic outcome for me and my children.
“We’ve suffered an immense amount because of Ibac’s failures, and we won’t ever get justice or accountability, but at least getting … an acknowledgment of a screw up is a start.
“We’ve got prima facie evidence of an integrity body with an integrity problem. This is absolutely not about resourcing – this is about mismanagement and culture.”
Ibac’s deputy commissioner, Kylie Kilgour, said in a statement that without government reform to the commission’s jurisdiction and funding it had “little choice but to refer matters such as Emma’s to Victoria Police”.
In a 27-page response to the inspectorate which was included in the report, Ibac details a litany of failures it said the inspectorate made, accuses them of bias, and makes clear it considered taking them to the supreme court.
But it ultimately accepted four recommendations, including that it keeps better records, develops policy regarding complaints it refers on and the ways in which these referrals can be withdrawn, and ensures the inspectorate is informed by Ibac as soon as possible about complaints that have been made against them.
