Finding into death of Bekkie-Rae Curren
Deceased
Bekkie-Rae Curren
Demographics
28y, female
Date of death
2019-12-04
Finding date
2024-10-14
Cause of death
Blunt head injury
AI-generated summary
Bekkie-Rae Curren, 28, died from blunt head injury sustained in an assault by her domestic partner on 26-27 November 2019. She had disclosed extensive family violence to support services, including strangulation, physical assault, sexual coercion, and monitoring. She was homeless and precarious in housing, cycling between safe accommodation, friends' homes, and the streets in the weeks before her death. Police engagement was appropriate when they located her on 22 November. The coroner identified systemic failures in housing and income support as contributing factors: inadequate crisis accommodation forcing reliance on motels and tents, and welfare payments below poverty line preventing economic independence. The death occurred within a context of escalating violence following relationship breakdown. Clinical intervention was not a factor; the death was criminal homicide.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- Family violence perpetrated by intimate partner
- Homelessness and housing insecurity
- Inadequate crisis accommodation capacity
- Low welfare payment rates
- Recent relationship separation
- Chronic subdural membranes from prior trauma
- Failure to secure stable safe accommodation
Coroner's recommendations
- Commonwealth Government should review rates for Australian income support payments, with particular focus on needs of women and children experiencing family violence
- Victorian Government implement outstanding recommendations from Legal and Social Issues Committee Inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria and commit to investing in adequate crisis accommodation to meet projected demands for victim survivors and perpetrators of family violence
- Victorian Government implement recommendations from Inquiry into rental and housing affordability crisis in Victoria, with special consideration to building 60,000 new public housing dwellings by 2034
- Victorian Government consider alternative ways of expanding social housing stock, such as exploring incentives for landlords to lease property at affordable rates
- Victorian Government consider reserving portion of public housing stock for perpetrators of family violence who have been removed from family home, to increase safety of women and children
- Victorian Government include right to housing in Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006
Full text
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