The glaring and baffling omission in Dezi Freeman case

May 25, 2026 — 7:49pm

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It was the same courtroom, same day and same coroner, but there were huge differences between the twin coronial hearings for murdered police officers Neal Thompson and Vadim de Waart-Hottart and, later, that of their killer Dezi Freeman.

Some of those differences were reassuring, respectful and even heartening.

But one is baffling, and it will be forever difficult to comprehend.

When Coroner Liberty Sanger opened the first hearing on Monday, to examine the deaths of Thompson and de Waart-Hottart, there was barely a spare seat in room one of the Coroners Court.

Thompson’s sisters, Lois Kirk and Dianne Thompson, sat in the left of the gallery among a dozen of the veteran officer’s wider family and friends. They sat calmly and respectfully, focusing on proceedings without giving any sign of the heartbreak forced upon them.

De Waart-Hottart’s family also attended, though they watched via a video link from their native Belgium.

What they heard was distressing.

Lindsay Spence, the counsel assisting the coroner, stepped through agonising detail not only of how Freeman had killed the officers, but how he then stood over their bodies and taunted them: “F---ing scum. Die in hell.”

Spence told the coroner that Freeman also said much worse but, out of respect to the families gathered, he spared those details.

It was beyond painful but, with so many months focused on Freeman and his whereabouts, it was important to finally hear what Thompson, de Waart-Hottart and........

© The Age