Family of Bronte Haskins urges coroner James Stewart to make adverse comments about trio

The ACT Coroner's Court on Friday heard closing submissions in the inquest into the death of Bronte Elouise Haskins, who was 23 when she died by suicide in February 2020.

Bronte, nicknamed "Poppy", battled mental health and addiction issues before her death, which occurred in the courtyard of a Higgins home occupied by convicted drug trafficker Brett French.

When the inquest commenced in February, Bronte's mother, Janine Haskins, told the court she had tried desperately to get emergency and health services to help her daughter, but no one seemed to listen or care.

Sam Tierney, a lawyer for Bronte's family, asked coroner James Stewart on Friday to include in his findings adverse comments about French, former police officer Glen James, and Access Mental Health triage officer Karina Boyd.

Mr Tierney addressed the issue in written submissions, which outline how Ms Haskins phoned Access Mental Health a few days before Bronte's death and spoke to Ms Boyd.

Ms Haskins says she told Ms Boyd that Bronte was "acutely unwell" and delusional, having taken illicit drugs in a breach of her bail conditions.

She had already contacted police about this and was waiting for officers to attend their Cook home to conduct a bail compliance check, but she believed Bronte needed to go to hospital or a mental health unit.

Mr Tierney said Ms Boyd's response had been to incorrectly triage Bronte as a "category G" patient, which meant more information was necessary to determine whether mental health intervention was required.

He argued that, had Bronte been properly categorised, she would have been assessed face-to-face by a trained clinician before her death.

Counsel assisting the coroner Andrew Muller also said this would likely have been the case, agreeing that Bronte had been incorrectly triaged.

However, Vanessa Thomas, counsel for the ACT government, said in her submissions that the issue of categorisation was not so straightforward and, even if it was found that Bronte's case should have been triaged differently, there was insufficient evidence to warrant specific criticism of Ms Boyd.

"There is no evidence that [Ms Boyd]'s decision was contrary to any practice in place at the time or inconsistent with any specific training she received," Ms Thomas said.

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Ms Thomas also said while Bronte would likely have had a face-to-face interaction with mental health services had she been triaged differently, the evidence did not support a finding that she would have consented to an assessment.

The adverse comment Bronte's family has sought in relation to Mr James relates to the former officer's alleged mishandling of CCTV recordings that were coronial exhibits.

But Irene Sekler, counsel for the Australian Federal Police, told the court on Friday an adverse comment in respect of the former officer was not warranted.

Ms Sekler said Mr James' conduct had not been "deliberately wrongful, reckless or negligent".

While Bronte's family acknowledged there was no evidence to suggest French, her ex-partner, was directly involved in her death, they have asked Mr Stewart to make comments that include that he "acted callously in his treatment of Bronte on the day of her suicide".

Mr Stewart said it would take "some time" before he was ready to deliver his findings.

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