UPDATE: Inside The ‘Dezi Freeman’ Inquest & The New Courtroom Revelations

Just over a week after we covered the murders of Victorian police officers Vadim De Waart-Hottart and Neal Thompson, we've learned more information about the case from the Coronial Inquest Hearing. Desmond Filby, 'Dezi Freeman', was shot dead following a seven-month manhunt, and this week, the Victorian Coroner’s Court heard the opening of two inquests. 7NEWS reporter Rochelle Brown explains what we learnt. LINKS If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. New Mamamia subscribers get $40 off — $20 off an annual membership and $20 off your TWOOBS order. Click here to subscribe https://www.mamamia.com.au/twoobs-discount-code/?utm_source=shownotes&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=discounts&utm_content=twoobs-ron. Already a subscriber? Click here for your $20 TWOOBS discount code https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscriber-hub/exclusive-offers/. T&C's apply. GET IN TOUCH Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeconversations/?hl=en Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at [email protected] mailto:[email protected] or send us a voice note. https://help.mamamia.com.au/en-US/send-a-podcast-voice-note-467960 Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes. CREDITS Guest: 7News Journalist Rochelle Brown https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0533976/Host: Gemma Bath https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmabath/?originalSubdomain=au Senior Producer: Tahli Blackman https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahli-blackman-205a891b7/?originalSubdomain=au Group Executive Producer: Ilaria Brophy Video Editor: Julian Rosario Mamamia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded this podcast. Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Gemma Bath, host of True Crime Conversations. And I'm dropping into your ears with an update on the case we covered just a week ago. The 2025 murders of Victorian police officers Vadim Devart Hotar and Neil Thompson at the hands of Desmond Filby, who sent police on a seven-month manhunt. Filby was shot dead in a standoff in March 2026 after he was found hiding out on a remote property in a shipping container, about 100 kilometres from his place of residence in Porpanca. It was there, at his home, that he shot and killed the officers, injuring a third, while they were trying to conduct a search warrant based on allegations of child abuse against Filby.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  Now, the court proceedings in this case are getting underway. On May 25th, in the Victorian Coroner's Court, family, colleagues and media gathered for the opening of two inquests. Seven News's Rochelle Brown was there. We asked her to walk us through what we learnt. Rochelle, thank you for joining us. Firstly, can you tell us procedurally what happened in the Melbourne Coroner's Court? Because they actually opened two inquests, which is quite unusual, really, in a crime, isn't it?

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me, Gemma. It is very unusual, but, I mean, we've got this highly unusual situation where we've had these two parallel awful incidents. You know, we've had the shootout involving the two police officers, those two fallen police officers. And then you've also got, you know, the shootout where Desmond Filby has been killed. So, you know, we've had this very unusual instance where there's these two ordeals and now we have to deal with them on a coronial level because there's no one really to charge in these instances, but they still need to investigate it. So, I mean, for people that don't kind of know the process at home, a coronial is quite different to a criminal process,

• 1:57Speaker 01

  but essentially it's to make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future, to figure out if it could have ended differently. But, you know, the coroner kind of said in court, it's not their role to point the finger and lay blame, like you would, you know, in a criminal kind of procedure. It's very different to a criminal case in that way, but there's still, you know, a lot of similarities. You've got evidence, you've got witnesses that we'll hear from at a later date, and a lot of investigations. So it's similar in that way, Gem.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  But this kind of opening, it's more of like what they call a directions hearing, right? So it's kind of just like working out dates and that kind of thing. Why did we find out so much new information? What actually happened? Who spoke?

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's, it's a directions hearing is like the very kind of start of an inquest process. But it is kind of typical to hear a summary of what's happened. So it's sort of an agreed summary that the lawyers have all decided to be able to read out in court. So it's not unusual that we might kind of hear this level of detail. It is procedural as well, though. Obviously, normally you'd get a few dates. In this case, we probably didn't get as many dates as you typically get. And normally you might hear a little bit more about witnesses, like who, who's going to come before the court and give evidence in the actual inquest. We didn't hear much of that. They pretty much said a lot of that wasn't ready.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  But we did hear this, this summary, which is typical in a directions hearing before an inquest to, to hear that kind of level of detail. I guess it's the first chance, if you're not going through a criminal proceedings, for family, for those involved to hear a bit more in depth about what happened that day.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  You were there in court. What was it like? Who was there? Because this was a huge story, both in August last year and then when Filby was killed this year. I imagine there was a big media contingent. Who else was in that room?

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, there was a huge media contingent, but of course, you know, it's the loved ones that is the most interesting in these cases. We saw the loved ones of Neil Thompson. They were physically in court, so his sisters. There was a number of other family members that were referenced, including Vidim's family, that were on a link. So a lot of people were kind of watching remotely and not physically in court, which again is, is quite typical in this sort of process, given how long that, you know, things can drag out and, and people are living elsewhere, for them to tune in online. Obviously, those family members, often, people often ask me, you know, What was the emotion like? What was it kind of like in court with these big stories?

• 4:41Speaker 01

  For these sisters, they sat calm, they sat composed despite hearing a lot of disturbing new detail, which which must have been horrific, but not unusual with these awful kind of instances that they, you know, try and remain calm in court. It's a it's a long process that they've been through. Obviously, a lot of police officers too. So there were several senior police officers. You know, you've had the the likes of the homicide squad boss, Dean Thomas, and the head of the police association, Wayne Gatt, he was also there. All kind of there in a show of support, but also they have obviously an interest in this case and and seeing what happened that day as well.

• 5:18Speaker 00

  Let's talk about that summary you mentioned because there was quite a lot of new information that came out that the public and the family wouldn't have known about. Let's start with why the officers were there in the first place. We were told it was a search warrant, but we were given more information in court as to what the actual search warrant was for. Can you tell us about it?

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, as you said, we sort of, we knew a lot of rough detail and we knew that there was some horrific child abuse allegations. But this is the first time that we've really heard specifics about that. So we we learned about why police were specifically there in the first place. So he was not only accused of of the sexual assault of a child under sixteen, he was also accused of attempting to involve a child in the production of child abuse material. So, yeah, some pretty horrific details there, especially for those families to hear about that were sitting in court. And certainly I think that we will hear a little bit more about that going forward. But we know that they were there to arrest him on those allegations. They were there to seize his devices.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  Obviously, when they got there, they got a whole lot more than they bargained for. But that's that was the purpose.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  I think that probably was one of the most shocking revelations because originally we kind of thought it was child abuse material. And then to hear it was an actual allegation of child abuse against Filby, like that is a whole nother kind of level of.

• 6:47Speaker 00

  Allegation, really.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Hmm, and it's horrific. And I guess, you know, you can't even imagine these police officers. They're just there to do their jobs, you know, and they're thinking that they're walking into the situation. There's some really serious allegations playing out here. They're hoping to arrest him. And, you know, he's hostile from the very beginning. Um, and, you know, they kind of presented him with these allegations, with a warrant. And straight away, he was questioning the validity of the warrant. He was questioning why they were there. He was calling out the allegations, saying that there was nothing to them. Um, so from the get go, this was hostile.

• 7:29Speaker 00

  For seven, eight months, we'd kind of heard very brief details that Neil Thompson was shot first, then Vadim was shot. But we didn't really have details about how that all played out. You heard in detail, didn't you?

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, there was a lot of detail. This is, as I said, the very first time that we've been able to hear a lot of this. Um, so they negotiated with him for thirty four minutes before any shots were fired, essentially. You know, going back and forth over that warrant. At one point, he's kind of said, you know, I want to take this to the Supreme Court. There's a due process for this. I want this before justice. He told them to go to hell. You know, it was quite intense, and he still refused to come out of this sort of bus where he was living on that property. Um, at the end of that negotiation, Neil Thompson starts to kind of lower himself into the bus through a window opening. And that was the first time Desmond Filby shot him.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  And then almost immediately after, he shoots Vadim. And as the other officers flee, they try and seek cover. Um, Desi's kind of heard saying over and over, I had no choice. I had no choice. I had no choice. And then this is kind of the horrific detail that really got to me. He then, he exits the bus, he approaches Vadim, he takes his gun. He later returns to his body and, you know, he's swearing at him. He tells him to die in hell before then shooting Neil Thompson a second time. So, you know, that second time was what, you know, a, a very sort of new detail that I don't think we'd heard before.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  It was, you know, this revelation that it was not just a heated moment. This was cold blooded. Um, this was, you know, an evil action that he's come back a second time. Yeah. And then, you know, he stands over both bodies after that and he makes various remarks. Some of them so awful that the, um, lawyers would never read them out in court. They just, you know, said out of respect to the families, yeah, we're not going to read those out. Which is pretty shocking to, yeah, and you can imagine kind of the mood in the courtroom as that, you know, unfolds.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  It is really shocking because often in court, all of the details are read out. You do hear all of those shocking details to the, for her to make that decision. I'm not going to read out these remarks. You can only imagine how horrible they were. It really does leave you kind of sick thinking about it.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. And you can, you know, you can't even imagine how those families would be feeling hearing that level of detail. I don't know how much they would have known before this, but it certainly was presented in a way that sounded like the family had never heard these details before. So you can imagine hearing that in a room full of people as opposed to, you know, digesting that on your own. You know, that thought awful, sometimes that, that call process can, can be absolutely awful. Victims' family.

• 10:29Speaker 00

  Very re-traumatizing, yeah. Um, I understand that Filby also sent a message, we hadn't heard about that before, to his wife.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was very interesting detail. Uh, uh, sort of as he was fleeing, he sends his wife a text. I've got it here, it reads, um, uh, Beb, get a mile away and keep going. See you in heaven, love. So quite a sort of chilling text message read out. And that really was, was the start of it all. That was the start of a seven month manhunt, the biggest in Victoria's history. Um, and, you know, where we are today.

• 11:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. The other detail that was talked about a bit was the fact that Filby didn't have active firearms licenses. He didn't, they didn't believe he had guns, right? That's quite an important detail because they would have. I'm assuming, and you can expand on it, they would have kind of approached that house differently, or that property differently, if they'd known or assumed there would be guns there?

• 11:26Speaker 01

  You would think so, but I mean, they did come with a contingent of 10 officers. I think they were prepared, but nothing could have prepared, you know, these officers for what did unfold. He did have gun licences at some point, but they had expired long before, or you know, had been suspended or expired long before this all unfolded. So certainly they didn't have intelligence that he had had active gun licences or guns at this time. Whether that would have changed anything if they had known that, I guess, we can only speculate, I suppose. But certainly, you know, they went in with lots of detectives ready to, I guess, arrest him and pounce, and they always, you know, take precautions going into that.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  Whether it could have played out differently is anyone's guess, and whether that will be explored in the inquest is also a possibility too.

• 12:18Speaker 00

  More of this conversation after the break, where we'll hear more about Filby's final moments.

• 12:25Speaker 02

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• 13:00Speaker 00

  So the murders of Vadim and Neil, they were kind of discussed in that first inquest opening in the morning, and then you came back in the afternoon to hear about the shooting death of Filby in the afternoon.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  What did you learn about Filby's final moments and that final standoff that we hadn't heard before?

• 13:19Speaker 01

  So I guess what happened to Desmond Filby is, you know, long winds sort of shrouded in mystery. We haven't heard as many details as we had about, you know, that horrific first shooting in Port Pankar. So this again was sort of the first chance to get any kind of detail. It was a lot shorter than the first inquest though, given that detectives are only at a certain point in investigations, they're still collecting all the information, et cetera. It's a lot sort of fresher. So they did kind of acknowledge that there would be a lot less detail, but we did learn a lot of interesting things. So essentially for those that don't know, and it's obviously 200 kilometres from Port Pankar where this all unfolded in a shipping container, so quite far from that initial kind of shootout. They've received intelligence that he was hiding out at that property about a week earlier.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  They didn't go into a great deal of detail about that intelligence, but again, I'm sure we might hear a little bit more about that later on. So police arrived, again, it was a period of negotiation, almost two hours actually that they negotiated with him in this case. He tried to lure police in during those negotiations, which is quite sort of an interesting element to this whole incident. He even said at one point, come have a beer with me, we'll talk about it, you know, sort of trying to lure them inside, I suppose. But in the midst of all that, he's also calling them thugs and bullies and accusing them of all being corrupt. You know, he's trying to tease them and at one point calling them cowards, saying, come and get me, come and get me.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  That's kind of when this all escalates. They eventually pumped gas into the shipping container, they put sort of a hole and pumped gas in there. And that's when he sort of emerges, he emerges with a gun, he shoots it at police, they return fire. So it's at that point that Desmond is killed, he's killed in a hail of gunfire, after discharging actually the same firearm that he had stolen in that initial shootout at Port Pankar. And we learned that there were eight members firing multiple rounds at him.

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Right.

• 15:24Speaker 01

  Which, yeah, we certainly didn't know the amount of police officers that had fired.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  You know, what had really unfolded in those final moments.

• 15:35Speaker 00

  And something that was discussed, I believe, was body worn cameras because there weren't any. And they kind of explained why.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, interestingly, they didn't go into too much detail about that, only to say that there is no body worn camera footage. Um, the police that attended weren't wearing them. In saying that, there is other evidence that they're going to rely on, which there's footage from up above, so aerial footage. Uh, and then there's also, interestingly, a 23 minute recording that Desmond made on his own phone of the entire kind of back and forth and the actual shooting itself that they're going to rely on throughout this inquest process as, as part of the evidence too.

• 16:23Speaker 00

  So what are the next steps from here? We obviously heard these opening remarks. And now do police get to go away and kind of prepare their evidence a bit more?

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, so they, they put together what's called, I guess, a brief, I think they call it a coronial brief of um, evidence in these kind of cases. They have some time to pull all that together. Um, once that's done, they can kind of come back to court and set an inquest date. So there was uh, one date set for the initial Porpanca shooting for the death of those two officers. Um, which is not until 2027. So we're looking at March 2027 and they even kind of acknowledged in court that that was just an estimation at this point, that could be pushed back, that could change. So we are looking at, you know, kind of months, uh, even a year before we're really exploring

• 17:14Speaker 01

  a lot more of what happened and getting into that, um, I guess more in-depth, coronial process.

• 17:22Speaker 00

  It's, um, interesting because we're not often on our podcast looking at crimes that are happening right now. And so often I'm looking in retrospect at how these processes really affect families and, and victims' loved ones because they wait for so long, they live in this kind of. In the crime for so long because they don't have that like end date and you can kind of see exactly how that's going to happen. Those families are grieving, they're trying to work through their emotions and now they're going to have to wait a year and then hear all these new details again and go through the processes again. It's like, I know it's not anyone's fault, this is just how court works, kind of, we need the time to get the police brief all together to then go to the coroner, but you can't help but think of the families and how, what that wait is going to be like.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's an incredible wait, you know, often in cases that I've sat on where they come to an end, you know, you ask people how they're feeling naturally when, when, you know, there's a result and they talk often not about the result itself, but the fact that they're so relieved that this process is over. It's almost like they can't fully grieve until the court process is over, which is awful. I mean, a case I sat on the other day that family had waited nine years.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  To get to the court, nine years.

• 18:34Speaker 00

  That's horrific.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, I mean, in this case, it's kind of a normal sort of, you know, the timeframes are pretty normal at this point, but obviously there are things that do happen that there is someone's fault in there and it, and it blows out. I do think in this case that, that they will get, you know, it will be quite succinct. I think once we get to that inquest process, hopefully next year it will kind of play out and hopefully those families can, yeah, I guess, continue to grieve and, and reach their next chapter and hopefully feel some kind of finality from knowing exactly what happened.

• 19:09Speaker 00

  Michelle, thank you so much for joining us and we'll, I guess we'll wait until next year to see what happens.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  That's right. Thank you for having me.