Finding into death of Jessica Geddes
Deceased
Jessica Geddes
Demographics
27y, female
Date of death
2020-11-06
Finding date
2025-06-24
Cause of death
Complications of multiple blunt force injuries
AI-generated summary
Jessica Geddes, 27, was killed by her partner Robert Rickerby through multiple blunt force injuries on 6 November 2020. The autopsy revealed extensive acute, subacute and chronic injuries inconsistent with accidental trauma, indicating prolonged abuse. Jessica had experienced escalating family violence including hammer attacks, hair cutting, and forced begging. Multiple agencies had contact with Jessica but missed intervention opportunities. Victoria Police failed to adequately investigate family violence incidents, showed possible credibility bias related to Jessica's mental illness, and did not pursue breaches of the Family Violence Intervention Order. Community Correctional Services did not sufficiently assess family violence risk or utilise their supervisory position to protect Jessica. The coroner identified systemic failures in police response, noting reliance on Jessica's mental health status when assessing victim credibility, and recommended welfare-oriented approaches to begging and embedding family violence practitioners within police units.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Drugs involved
Contributing factors
- Prolonged intimate partner violence
- Coercive control and isolation
- Financial abuse and forced begging
- Substance use (methylamphetamine)
- Mental health issues
- Lack of treatment for injuries
- Police failure to investigate family violence incidents
- Police failure to pursue Family Violence Intervention Order breaches
- Community Correctional Services failure to assess family violence risk
- Inadequate family violence training among police
- Victim credibility assessment bias
Coroner's recommendations
- Victoria Police develop welfare-oriented approaches to people who beg, including consideration of a co-responder model partnering police with community welfare practitioners
- Victoria Police develop protocol/practice guideline to dissuade members from using criminal response to begging and to encourage inquiries about persons' needs and safety with referrals to welfare services
- Victoria Police and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing provide funding to embed advanced family violence practitioners within each FVIU in two regions as pilot, to assess and jointly respond to repeat and high-risk family violence matters with independent evaluation within two years
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