Coroner's Finding: HALES Fiona Joy
Deceased
Fiona Joy Hales
Demographics
33y, female
Date of death
2017-10-27
Finding date
2020-07-09
Cause of death
hanging
AI-generated summary
Fiona Joy Hales, aged 33, died by hanging at her home while subject to home detention and bail conditions. She had a 5-year history of methamphetamine addiction, previous suicide attempts (2007/2008 and December 2016), and was under stress from child custody disputes. Her case manager provided appropriate supportive care including fortnightly meetings, mental health planning, and a therapeutic approach after a positive drug test on 17 October 2017. No clinical failings by the Department for Correctional Services were identified. The coroner found lawful detention and appropriate treatment. This case highlights the importance of identifying at-risk individuals with substance use disorders, prior suicide attempts, and psychosocial stressors for intensive mental health monitoring and timely psychiatric intervention.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- methamphetamine addiction and recent resumption of drug use
- previous suicide attempts (2007/2008 and December 2016)
- loss of custody of children and associated stress
- child custody disputes and relationship breakdown
- suicidal ideation when withdrawing from amphetamines
- positive methamphetamine drug test on 17 October 2017
Full text
Related cases
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —