Finding into death of Bekkie-Rae Curren

28y · Female·Blunt head injury

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.