Pod Insights The Case Of Porepunkah police shooting: The final moments About this episode Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart were killed by Dezi Freeman in August 2025. Now, the Victorian state coroner has shared new details about their final moments.
Wodonga reporter Ashlee Aldridge was one of the first reporters on the ground in Porepunkah when the officers were killed. She pieces together the events based on the coroner’s information and her own recollection of that day.
PLUS: We’ve got the latest on Erin Patterson’s appeal against her three murder convictions, likely to be heard later this year. More detail is available in our episode Mushroom Lunch: Erin Patterson’s appeal explained. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/the-case-of/mushroom-lunch-erin-pattersons-appeal-explained/105984404
If you have any questions you’d like Ashlee and Stocky to answer in future episodes, please email [email protected] mailto:[email protected] .
The Case Of is the follow-up to the hit podcast Mushroom Case Daily, and all episodes of that show will remain available in the back catalogue of The Case Of.
The Case Of is the follow-up to the hit podcast Mushroom Case Daily, and all episodes of that show will remain available in the back catalogue of The Case Of.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Just one day after Jack McLennan's relationship fell apart, he vanished.
0:04 Speaker 01 I couldn't believe this was happening.
0:06 Speaker 00 Immediately accusations started flying.
0:09 Speaker 02 You need to cough up and you need to confess.
0:11 Speaker 00 But it soon became clear, there was so much more to the story.
0:15 Speaker 03 There has to be something more nefarious going on.
0:17 Speaker 00 I'm Rob Bergen. Join me as I investigate what became of Jack in the new season of Unravel.
0:23 Speaker 04 You know where my son is.
0:24 Speaker 00 Search for the Unravel podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
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0:45 Speaker 00 Ten police went to arrest Dezi Freeman for child sexual abuse in August last year. Only eight of them left. What happened that morning in remote Northern Victoria has haunted police and the community for months. And it will now be examined, the coronial inquest. I'm Stephen Stockwell and a content warning for this episode, we're going to be describing some distressing scenes and repeating some offensive language. Welcome to the case of. Police were serving a search warrant as part of a sex crime investigation when Freeman opened fire.
1:16 Speaker 06 Killing a 59-year-old detective and 35-year-old senior constable.
1:21 Speaker 00 Mr Freeman is a so-called sovereign citizen who believes the government and the courts are illegitimate. The two officers were gunned down in Port Puncar. Their names now etched in Victoria Police's honour wall.
1:34 Speaker 00 On Tuesday, we took you inside the coroner's court to look at the final moments of Dezi Freeman. But that story started months before his death. The moments that led to that shooting started when he shot and killed two police officers, Vadim Devart-Hodart and Neil Thompson. On the ground in Port Puncar after that happened and following along with the inquest is Ashley Aldrich, a reporter at ABC Galway-Murray. Ashley, thank you for joining us again.
2:00 Speaker 00 The detail of this shooting is horrific. There's a number of police going up to the bus that Freeman was living in. They're there to execute a search warrant. They gained entry to the bus that he was in, and that's when he opens fire.
2:14 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. Horrific is probably the best way to describe it. We heard yesterday that once the police gained entry into that bus, after about 34 minutes of trying to negotiate with Freeman to get him to come out of that bus, they eventually gained access. And it was then that Detective Leading Senior Constable Neil Thompson was shot and fell to the ground immediately. And then the other police that were in the annex at the time, they turned to run. And we heard that Senior Constable Vadim Devart Hotat was at that point shot as well.
2:48 Speaker 00 Yeah, Ash, it is such a dramatic scene. And I mean, I didn't know too many of the details surrounding this. And something I'd always wondered about in this shooting was how prepared police were heading to Freeman's property. I just had questions about how many people there were, what planning was done. But, you know, it did seem like they were quite well organised.
3:08 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. So we've learnt that there were several units involved in that warrant execution on the day. That being members of the Wangaratta Criminal Investigation Unit, which Detective Thompson was part of, members of the Wangaratta Child Sex Offences Unit. And that was because the warrant that they were there to execute was in relation to the sexual assault of a minor. And also uniform officers from the Bright Police Station, which is where Senior Constable Devart Hotat was on secondment from Melbourne at. Now, we know that they met at the Bright Police Station. So many of those officers have travelled from Wangaratta. For people that aren't familiar with the area, that's about a 40 minute drive.
3:52 Speaker 06 So they've travelled from Wangaratta to Bright, met at the police station there for a briefing. And then they've travelled by convoy to the property at Porepunkah. And again, for those unfamiliar with the area, it's about a 10 minute drive back from Bright to Porepunkah toward Wangaratta.
4:10 Speaker 00 Okay, thank you Ash. And I mean, you've got details of the number of officers involved, I think 10 officers involved in total. And also some more details of Freeman's alleged offending as well. I mean, you've mentioned that the Wangaratta Child Sexual Offence Unit is part of this group executing this warrant. The warrant was to search the property for child abuse material. And am I right in thinking this started because there was a disclosure from a child of a sexual assault by Freeman?
4:38 Speaker 06 Yeah, so in the days following the shooting, we had heard a few details about why police were there and details around that warrant. But yesterday, we really got some more finer details. And as you mentioned, it was including that in June of last year, police received a disclosure in respect to an alleged sexual assault involving a child under the age of 16, as well as an attempt to involve a child in the production of child abuse material. So the purpose of that search warrant was to find and seize any electronic devices that were to be interrogated for the potential presence of child abuse material. And while they were there, they also planned to arrest and interview Freeman as part of that investigation.
5:24 Speaker 00 Yeah, and that's the reason, yeah, everyone is at this property. You know, the scene that you started us with, talking about police entering the bus that Freeman was living in, that was after they'd been at the property for about half an hour or so. What happened when police arrived in the first instance?
5:40 Speaker 06 Yeah, so police arrive at Raina Track that the property is on in a convoy. Now, again, for context, I've been up that track. It's quite narrow. And the property sits at the very end of the track and the driveway has an electronic gate. Now, when those police officers have arrived, that gate was locked. So a decision was made for five of the officers to go into the property on foot, while another three took a police vehicle and they accessed the property via a nearby lane. Two other police stayed with the car at the front of the driveway at the gate. As the five officers made their way to that bus where the Freemans were living,
6:24 Speaker 06 they saw his wife Amalia. She went back into the annex. And then the police have followed her and they've knocked on the bus door to say why they were there. And at that point, they could see Freeman, his wife, and they could also hear a young child in the bus.
6:40 Speaker 00 This isn't a property that Dezi Freeman owns though, is it? He's living in this bus, there's a caravan there. The guy who owns the property, I think, actually wanders down at one point filming the police on his phone?
6:52 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. So they're living on the property of Andrew Swift. They'd been there for several years. And you're correct, once police arrived there, Andrew Swift comes down to the bus and he actually says to the police that they were trespassing on private property. And he starts filming on his phone. Now, this vision makes up a large amount of video evidence that was captured from the incident. We heard from counsel assisting that along with Mr Swift's mobile vision, there was also another person there filming on their phone. And five of those police officers were also wearing body worn cameras.
7:29 Speaker 00 Yeah, so there's going to be a lot for the coroner to basically watch to see how that unfolded. And I mean, as we discussed in our episode on Tuesday, it's, you know, the reverse of the situation in Tolugalong where, you know, none of the special operations group officers were wearing body cameras. And the only footage from that is from, from the helicopter.
7:48 Speaker 00 Doesn't sound like Dezi Freeman is particularly cooperative. Doesn't sound like his wife is particularly cooperative. Doesn't sound like Andrew Swift, who owns this property, is, you know, kind of assisting this situation in any way. Why weren't they cooperating?
8:01 Speaker 06 Well, when Freeman is told by police why they're there and what the warrant is about, um, and that is it's in fact in regards to child sex offences, he describes it as bullshit. He argues with the police, he refuses to come out, he tells them that they can go to hell, that the search is illegal and that he doesn't recognise their law. Uh, at one stage, he said that he was going to appeal that search warrant in the Supreme Court during some of that back and forth.
8:31 Speaker 00 Yeah, that really stuck out to me. Can you do that?
8:34 Speaker 06 I'm really not sure if you can, but we do know that Freeman already had quite a fractured relationship with the law before August last year. So in 2021, he was involved in an attempt to have the former Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, tried for treason and fraud. Three years later, he told the Supreme Court that he and his family were the victims of malicious prosecution and a personal vendetta after he was stopped for speeding out the front of a fish and chip shop. So it is certainly a method that he has used before.
9:08 Speaker 00 Hmm, okay. I mean, I think, you know, fractured relationship with the law is an interesting way to describe Freeman. We should flag that he has actually changed his name. He was originally known as Desmond Philby. Counselor assisting mentioned this at the start of the hearing earlier this week. I mean, Ash, there is this back and forth with Freeman, his wife and Andrew Swift and the police, you know, not letting police onto the bus that he was living in. How do they end up getting in?
9:33 Speaker 06 Yeah, so we heard that they made multiple attempts to coax the Freemans out. Desi refused. At one stage, a police officer went on to the top, the roof of the bus to try to get in, and that was unsuccessful. And after about half an hour, they, the police called a supervisor to get permission to essentially break into the bus. That was granted, and it was at that point that Detective Thompson was able to remove a perspex piece of glass that was at the top of the bus door. So he was able to get that glass off and then enter the bus feet first. And it's as he enters into the bus, when his body goes in,
10:16 Speaker 06 that he is shot in the side of the face. And we heard from the counsel assisting that at that point, he immediately collapses.
10:24 Speaker 00 Hmm.
10:24 Speaker 06 Then there was one officer standing directly behind Detective Thompson, and he has yelled gun and ran. And behind him was Senior Constable Devart Hotheart, who had also turned to run. But Freeman fired a second time, hitting him.
10:42 Speaker 00 Yeah, the police at this point, you know, as you've described, you know, a kind of running, you've got the officers behind Detective Thompson running away, Senior Constable Devart Hotheart has been shot, you know, you've got police hiding behind a car, a shed. What does Freeman do at this point?
10:59 Speaker 06 So Freeman is actually captured on body worn camera at this point repeatedly saying, I had no choice, I had no choice. Then we hear a short time later Freeman actually comes out of the bus with the shotgun that he had used to shoot the two police officers. He goes over to Senior Constable Devart Hotart and removes his gun from his holster and a spare magazine. And then he continues to shoot at the officers that are taking cover. The court then heard that a police officer actually yelled out, can you hear us, Tomo? Now that was toward Detective Thompson. And at that point Freeman was heard yelling, now a language warning here, die in hell,
11:44 Speaker 06 you fucking scum, die in fucking hell. As he stood over the body of Detective Thompson. He has then used Senior Constable Devart Hotart's gun to shoot Detective Thompson a second time.
11:59 Speaker 00 Something that stood out to me, Ash, from this part of the opening was that councillor assisting didn't want to repeat some of the things that Daisy Freeman was saying inside the truck because we had family members of the police officers watching along.
12:16 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. He really made a point when he was reading out the opening that he wasn't going to repeat what Freeman said when he stood over the bodies of those two police officers out of respect because we know that Detective Thompson's sisters and partner were in court and the parents of Senior Constable Devart Hotart were on a link from Belgium watching on. So I guess it's fair to say that that is some indication of what was said at that time.
12:48 Speaker 00 Yeah, and the coroner and councillor assisting made points at various parts of the hearing earlier this week to highlight the, you know, the trauma that the families of these officers would still be dealing with, you know, and the role the media has in kind of portraying these stories sensitively and, you know, not causing any further harm to them as well. Ash, how much of this detail was new to you?
13:11 Speaker 06 Freeman's actions after the initial shooting of the two police officers was certainly new details that we hadn't heard before. We knew that he had taken one of the officer's guns in those early reports from police when it was still quite unfolding on that day. We were getting information that he was armed and had potentially taken a police officer's gun. But we certainly didn't know that he had used that gun to shoot Detective Thompson a second time. We also didn't know about a fourth officer being injured in the shooting while taking cover. So they were seeking cover behind a white van and they received cuts to their face, their ear and their neck from shattered pieces of glass.
13:56 Speaker 06 So that was certainly some new information that also came out of that hearing.
14:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, because, I mean, the scene that you've just talked us through, the shooting of Senior Constable Devartodat and Detective Thompson, and yeah, the scene you're describing here is this kind of shooting that continues after that initial exchange.
14:14 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. And that is when the third officer that was critically injured was shot in the leg. So we know he was also seeking cover and was critically injured. He was taken by ambulance from the scene after this unfolded and taken to nearby Myrtleford, which is the closest next big town. And he was actually taken by helicopter to Melbourne with those serious injuries.
14:38 Speaker 00 Yeah. Where does Dezi Freeman end up?
14:40 Speaker 06 So Dezi Freeman was last seen walking into the bushland. Police did fire back. I think it was two shots were fired back at him, but he did manage to flee into that thick bushland that goes into the Mount Buffalo National Park.
14:56 Speaker 00 And he sent a message to his partner, I think, basically saying, take the kids and I think was it, I'll see you in heaven?
15:03 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. We had heard that he had perhaps sent a text message, but we didn't have it confirmed. But that certainly came out in the hearing that he had sent that message encouraging her to keep going and that he would see her in heaven.
15:16 Speaker 00 Yeah. Other police arrive at Freeman's property around 11 o'clock in the morning, kind of obviously back up after this, you know, shooting has taken place. When did you end up in Porpanca?
15:29 Speaker 06 So I actually went back through my phone records and I got a phone call from a contact in the area at ten thirty. After hearing the evidence from council assisting, I assume that this contact has seen that initial convoy of police going from Bright to Porepunkah. So they've, they've seen that and they've called and they've just said to me, hey, Ash, you know, seems to be a lot of police in the Bright area, not sure what's going on. Maybe it's, you know, something I just thought I would let you know, but there seems to be an unusual amount of police here. So I sort of jumped off the phone and I had a quick chat to my acting editor and then I called some other contacts. No one really knew much and then I called um a police station and the response I got
16:14 Speaker 06 from them was they couldn't tell me anything, but I just, I got a feeling that things were a bit frantic, which is unusual when I usually call them. So it was enough for me to sort of, you know, my journo gut to go, okay, there might be something happening. So I sort of packed up the gear, I'm a video journalist, so I packed up my camera and we made the decision that I would just go and see what was happening. Um it's about an hour drive, so I think I got there just after about eleven thirty, but on my drive there, I was actually being passed by police with their lights and sirens going because they were coming from Wodonga as well. So when I did get there, it was quite chaotic. There was police everywhere.
16:57 Speaker 06 I got out of the car and two police officers sort of ran at me and were telling me to, to leave, to get out of there. It wasn't the time to be filming because I got my phone out and immediately started filming and then once I sort of explained to them who I was and that I was from the media, they were a bit more receptive. Um so I, I was there pretty, pretty early in, on, in the incident.
17:19 Speaker 00 Yeah, it would have been just incredibly confronting being in a situation like that with what I can imagine were police that were pretty frustrated that there was anybody in the way at all as they were trying to work out what had happened and track down Dezi Freeman. I mean, when you were listening to the evidence on Monday, you know, did you find yourself reflecting and having more of an understanding of what they were dealing with at the time?
17:42 Speaker 06 Yeah, I could see when I got there and the two police officers that first approached me, and my colleagues weren't that far behind me, so I wasn't there by myself for too long. And as you can imagine, like, the media really started to roll in. But I could see that one of the police officers, and I actually know her, I've been covering this area for ten years, so like, she was familiar to me, but I could see that she was visibly upset. Um, at the time, I had no idea what was, what was going on because it was still so early, but I guess it was enough for me to know that it was something serious. And by that point, the air wing had arrived as well, and it was hovering really low over the paddock, not far from where I was, and then the dog squad arrived as well.
18:22 Speaker 00 Something that stuck out to me, Ash, in the hearing on Monday was the detail we got about the, the weapons that were used in this shooting. I mean, we've talked about a shotgun that Dezi Freeman had. Was, you know, the, the guns used, something that was a, a new bit of detail in this, in this story?
18:41 Speaker 06 Yeah, so again, we'd heard bits and pieces about the shotgun that was initially used and then Freeman taking the police officer's handgun, but this was the first time that we'd really got detailed information about this as well. So we heard that Freeman was first licensed for rifles and shotguns back in twenty fifteen and handguns in twenty sixteen. Those licenses, though, were suspended and reinstated several times over the years, but on August twenty sixth last year, all of Freeman's firearm licenses had expired while suspended. So that means he no longer legally held a firearms licence and had no guns registered to his name.
19:25 Speaker 06 Police, uh, we did hear during that hearing that police still don't know where the shotgun used in the incident came from, and the weapon still hasn't been recovered.
19:34 Speaker 00 Yeah, okay. Ash, something that happened towards the end of the, the hearing on Monday was the appointment of a coronal investigator. What is that person going to do?
19:45 Speaker 06 Yeah, so the job of the coronial investigator, the best way probably to describe it is sort of, they do the boots on the ground part of the investigations. We think along the lines of examining the scene, gathering evidence, liaising with families of the deceased, reporting back to the coroner with what is known as that coronial brief of evidence. So we heard that Senior Sergeant Nigel Lestrange from the Victoria Police Homicide Squad has been appointed to this coronial inquest. And now this investigation is being oversighted by the Victoria Police Professional Standards Command.
20:23 Speaker 00 Yeah, okay. And as we talked about in our episode on Tuesday, you know, the coronial process is not about kind of working out if there's criminal charges that will be laid on anyone or, you know, kind of apportioning damages for anything that has occurred. It's just looking into the circumstances of the death and, you know, if anything could be prevented in future. That being said though, Dezi Freeman was wanted for criminal charges. He was wanted for child sexual offences. Do we hear anything more about the charges he was facing or what evidence was recovered from his house?
20:53 Speaker 06 No, we only heard about the warrant during that hearing. We didn't hear any further details, but the ABC did reveal last month that police were at that property to execute a warrant for his devices on which hundreds of files containing child abuse material were later found. Now detectives discovered child abuse material, this child abuse material in the aftermath of the August shooting as they scoured Freeman's devices. But that, nothing was sort of revealed in the hearing about this.
21:29 Speaker 00 Yeah, okay. We've got, you know, witnesses to come later. Do you have any idea who we might hear from as this inquest progresses?
21:36 Speaker 06 So there was no official witness list spoken about during the hearing, but we would expect that we will hear from forensic experts from Victoria Police. We know that Freeman's wife, Amalia, was represented by lawyers during that hearing. And also, family members of the deceased may well also give evidence as well during that hearing.
22:01 Speaker 00 Okay, yeah. And, I mean, this isn't a kind of a short turnaround kind of vibe. The the next hearing or the hearings for this inquest was set down for for March next year. Is that is that the full inquest? Is that when we'll kind of dive into this proper?
22:15 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's right. So it was a tentative date that was set. So it's not locked in. By not locking in, they really have a bit of flexibility, given the amount of evidence that will have to be gathered for this full coronial inquest. But it is likely that it will be early next year that we do hear the full inquest.
22:33 Speaker 00 Okay, Ash, yeah, a little bit, little bit of time to go. But, I mean, we spoke about the community and how the community was feeling in episode on Tuesday. How's the police feeling? How are the family and friends of these officers coping at this stage with this process just kicking off?
22:49 Speaker 06 Yeah, so it's for the community, they were really ready to move on. They wanted to sort of distance themselves from these shootings. But for the family and friends, particularly the friends of Detective Thompson, who I've spent a lot of time with over the past few months, they say this won't bring him back, but it will provide some closure. It's particularly hard for them when something happens, an arrest is made, or an inquest is on, that it sort of all gets brought up again. So they are really looking forward to things coming to an end finally. One, one of his friends sort of said to me that...
23:30 Speaker 06 Hopefully Neil will finally be able to rest in peace at the end of this because it hasn't felt like it has been able to while Freeman was still on the run, while arrests haven't been made or while an inquest is still ongoing.
23:46 Speaker 00 Yeah, absolutely. Ash, thanks so much for joining us for these episodes this week, for helping break down what happened at the coronial inquest directions hearings, the whole start of this process for these two inquiries and also for taking us to the north east of Victoria and giving us an understanding of what it was like when all of this unfolded and that local knowledge that you've brought us over these last couple of episodes.
24:09 Speaker 06 My pleasure, thank you.
24:11 Speaker 00 If you missed the first episode of this story, the episode that Ash and I did on the coronial inquiry into Dezi Freeman's death, you should check that out in the Case Of feed. You can grab ABC Listen for that and a heap of other wonderful podcasts. Also, tell your friends, share this, help them understand what happened on these days. Also, you might have seen some reporting that Victorian courts are preparing to consider Erin Patterson's appeal of her triple murder conviction. The court hasn't confirmed a date or anything yet, but we will keep a close eye on that for you. If you are looking for some background, we popped the episode we did in November last year when we got the appeal documents in that Christian Silva breaks down the grounds that Erin Patterson is appealing on, questions about the phone to our evidence, about the claim that her cross-examination was unfair,
24:54 Speaker 00 amongst several others. It might be worth another listen to that episode if you're up for a refresher or you want to sound read in at your parties this weekend. Be back in your feed on Tuesday.
25:11 Speaker 00 The Case Of is produced by ABC Audio Studios and ABC News. This episode was reported by Ashley Aldridge and presented by me, Stephen Stockwell. Our supervising producer is Greg Muller and our executive producer is Claire Rollinson. Thank you to senior lawyer Jasmine Sims, our legal queen for her legal advice, to ABC Goben Murray and to Audio Studios manager Eric George. This episode was produced on the land of the Wurundjeri and Wurundjeri people.
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