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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lDrink driver dies in custody28 January 2008 - MAJOR Crime Squad detectives are investigating the death in custody of an Aboriginal man arrested on Australia Day in the West Australian desert town of Warburton for allegedly drink-driving. Police say the man died the next day after collapsing in the back of a security van on the second leg of a 915km journey to jail in the goldfields city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. He was being driven by contractors for the Department of Corrective Services, who noticed he had collapsed as they neared their destination. Police stopped the man last Saturday at 9.30pm in his remote home town of Warburton, 1500km northwest of Perth in the traditional Ngaanyatjarra Lands. He was charged with one count of drink driving and taken to the lockup in Warburton. He was driven 570km to the courthouse in the town of Laverton where he appeared on Sunday and was remanded in custody. Police say he was being transported to the nearest jail, the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison 352km away, when he collapsed. The man was being transported by Global Solutions Limited, after having been picked up in Laverton at 11.40am, police say. He was being conveyed in the rear of the GSL security van. As the van neared Kalgoorlie, the man was found to have collapsed and he was conveyed to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. But he died a short time later. Kalgoorlie Detectives will help the Major Crime Squad with its investigation of the man's death. Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk said the cause of the death had not yet been established. "Any death in custody is a tragedy and will be thoroughly investigated,'' she said. by Paige Taylor Source: The Australian Man dies on way to jailWestern Australia's Minister for Corrective Services, Margaret Quirk, says there will be a thorough investigation into a death in custody in Kalgoorlie. A 46-year-old man, believed to be from the Goldfields town of Warburton, collapsed while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie. He was taken to Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital where he died a short time later. A spokesman for the transport company G-S-L, Tim Hall, says it was a traumatic event. "I can tell you at the moment it was a very distressing incident in every respect," he said. "The police coronial investigation is still underway however, and for that reason I'm not able to make any comment at all about the incident. I can tell you that our employee will receive counselling if such is necessary." Source: ABC
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its one year on from the Australian Governments controversial intervention into NT Indigenous communities
action Roll back, listen to Indigenous community voices speaking about the intervention |
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