Noeline Dalzell inquest: Killer ex-partner James Fairhall wanted by Victoria Police at time of murder

A man who fatally stabbed his ex-partner in front of their three children was wanted by police for months, but they didn’t arrest him until she was dead.

An inquest into the death of Noeline Dalzell is investigating how police and other state government services failed to protect her, and their three teenage children, from James Fairhall despite a long history of family violence.

Victoria’s State Coroner John Cain heard Ms Dalzell met Fairhall in 2002 and their relationship turned violent quickly, and escalated further following the birth of the couple’s third child.

Fairhall was in and out of prison, due largely to family violence offences against Ms Dalzell and their children, and a full and final family violence intervention order had been in place since 2018.

That order banned Fairhall from any contact with Ms Dalzell or their children.

When Fairhall was let out of prison at the end of 2019, it only took him 13 days before he breached the intervention order again, triggering a warrant for his arrest.

But the warrant was never executed and Fairhall moved in with Ms Dalzell and their three children, telling them he had nowhere else to go.

He slept on Ms Dalzell’s couch until he killed her on February 4, 2020.

On that day their children returned from school to find their parents arguing.

Fairhall was jealous and enraged about his ex’s new relationship when he followed her through the family’s home holding a knife.

He reached over their children to inflict a fatal stab wound to the woman’s neck before their son bravely intervened and tackled him to the ground.

She ran outside to her neighbour’s home while injured. They tried to save her but she died at the scene.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway, who leads the family violence command, said Fairhall’s release from custody took both police and corrections by “surprise” given his long history of intervention order breaches and family violence.

She said his transient lifestyle and active avoidance of police made it hard for officers to track him down, despite numerous calls to Crime Stoppers between his release and subsequent arrest.

Every time police turned up at Ms Dalzell’s home, she said he wasn’t there.

“It’s difficult to engage with someone who’s actively avoiding you,” Ms Callaway told the court on Monday.

Fairhall was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in jail.

Ms Dalzell’s brother Malcolm and sister-in-law Jennifer were in court for the hearing.

The inquest continues.

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