Inquest into the deaths of Lynette Helen Thompson and Alan Leslie Fletcher

Case Number: 2020/332599 and 2020/319608

Date of Findings: 9 December 2025

Magistrate: Deputy State Coroner, Magistrate Rebecca Hosking

Catchwords: Manner of death; murder-suicide; domestic violence; police protection; bail drug offences; homicide; intentional self-inflicted death; apprehended domestic violence order (ADVO) application; thermal injuries.

Responses

Recommendations

To the Commissioner of Police

1. amending the Domestic and Family Violence Standard Operating Procedures 2018 at page 112 under the heading ‘The Test for a Senior Police Officer’ by adding a third paragraph that states:
   The failure to identify a primary aggressor is not a proper basis for a senior officer to refuse an application for a provisional ADVO where it is suspected or believed that both parties have committed an offence and both parties are in need of protection.
2. amending the process by which provisional ADVO applications are refused electronically on the Web Computerised Operating Policing Systems (COPS) system, by allowing senior officers, at the time of refusal, to include a narrative on the system that clearly sets out the specific reasons why an ADVO application has been refused.