Woman screams down line for help but police operator accepts killer's word

NZ Herald

8 Dec, 2011 04:30 PM4 mins to read

Photo / Thinkstock

Australian authorities are investigating evidence that emergency 000 operators ignored a screaming mother's calls for help after being assured by the man about to kill her that "we're fine".

Sean Eugen Maraffko stabbed Joanne Wicking to death before turning on her two young daughters, torturing them until one escaped and fled, still gagged by duct tape.

The 10-year-old girl had broken free when she was sent to bring two younger siblings, aged two and four, to the 42-year-old killer.

Joanne Wicking, 29, had taken Maraffko into her home as a lodger less than three weeks earlier on the suggestion of a friend and with the approval of the Victorian Adult Parole Board.

He had just served a minimum one year of a two-year sentence for recklessly causing injury, assault, false imprisonment and breaching an intervention order against another woman, and was on parole. His 33 convictions included threatening to kill staff at a police station in 1998.

On March 6 last year, hell broke loose at the Wicking family's Kilmore home.

In a horrific seven minutes, Wicking rang 000 three times, screaming and pleading for help.

None came. Five calls in total were made from Wicking's home.

Transcripts of calls obtained by the Herald Sun detail the fatal failures.

In the first call Wicking could only scream, with the Telstra operator telling the police operator: "Nobody's responded to me so I'm not sure what they need, but they're obviously in trouble there."

In the second, Maraffko takes the phone from the screaming Wicking and tells the police operator no help is needed: "No thank you ... we're fine, we're fine ... it was an accidental call, sorry." The operator replies: "All right, I'll cancel the call."

In a third call Wicking screams and yells "help, please help" before the line is closed. In two later calls Maraffko initially tells the operator he is in Shepparton, 180km north of Melbourne, then correctly identifies the address in Melbourne and says Wicking's earlier calls were "a mistake".

"So you don't need [the police] now," the operator says.

"No."

"Okay then."

Maraffko then stabbed Wicking to death.

He repeatedly punched, kicked and stabbed at the two young girls, burning one with an ignited aerosol can and smashing a ceramic dish over her head. He then told the 10-year-old to bring the two infants but she escaped and ran down the street, gagged by a jumper and duct tape.

A neighbour called the police.

Maraffko was last month jailed for 35 years with a 30-year minimum term.

"You murdered her in the sanctuary of her own home where she had taken you in and provided you with shelter," Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Curtain told Maraffko.

The Herald Sun handed the transcripts to the 000 watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which will investigate the tragedy to determine if the system can be improved.

Wicking's mother Helen told the Herald Sun: "It comes too late to save Joanne, but hopefully improvements can be made to the 000 system so nobody else has to go through what she did."

Fatal error over emergency call

An extract from one of five emergency calls made from Joanne Wicking's phone.

Police operator: "Emergency services."

Telstra: (Screaming can be heard in the background) "It's 209089. Nobody's responded to me so I'm not sure what they need, but they're obviously in trouble there."

Police operator: "Okay, thank you. Emergency services: where do you need the police?"

Caller: "(Screaming)"

Police operator: "Where do you need the police?"

Caller: "(Screaming/crying)"

Police operator: "Hello."

Caller: "(Screaming/crying)"

Police operator: "Hello Hello, do you need the police? Hello."

Caller: (Male voice) "Hello."

Police operator: "Do you need the police?"

Caller: "No, thank you."

Police operator: "You don't?"

Caller: "We're fine, we're fine."