home | news l

Cop in Rare Trial for Custodial Death of Aborigine

By Stephen de Tarczynski

20 June - IPS Italy - For the first time in decades an Australian policeman is facing trial on charges of manslaughter and assault in relation to the death of an aboriginal man while in custody.

On November 19, 2004, 36-year-old, Cameron Doomadgee lay dying on the floor of the jailhouse on Palm Island, a remote, mostly aboriginal, community of 3,500 people, located off the Queensland coast, 70 km north-east of Townsville.

Doomadgee, known by his tribal name of Mulrunji, had sustained horrific internal injuries. His liver -- the two halves of which were left connected by a few blood vessels -- and portal vein had been ruptured, leading to intra-abdominal bleeding which caused his death.

Acting state coroner, Christine Clements, conducted an inquest into the death of Mulrunji, releasing her findings in September, 2006. She accepted the conclusions of two autopsies, finding that "severe compressive force applied to the upper abdomen, or possibly the lower chest, or both together, was required to have caused this injury".

Clements found that "Senior Sergeant Hurley hit Mulrunji while he was on the floor a number of times in a direct response to himself having been hit in the jaw (by Mulrunji) and then falling to the floor". She concluded that these actions of Hurley caused Mulrunji's fatal injuries.

In Townsville's Supreme Court last week, Hurley pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and assault in relation to the death of Mulrunji.

"From my point of view it's a very significant moment because it's the first time that a police officer has been charged with criminal offences over an aboriginal death in custody," says Sam Watson, Deputy Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland.

Hurley had arrested Mulrunji at about 10:20 am on the day that he died. Mulrunji, who was walking past when another man on Palm Island was being arrested, got involved in a verbal altercation with the arresting officers.

He was subsequently arrested by Hurley. The custody register at the Palm Island police station, completed at 10:26 am, shows that Mulrunji was charged with the offence of public nuisance. An hour later he would be dead.

Mulrunji's death sparked a series of events which have culminated in Hurley's current trial. A week after the death, following the release of the autopsy report, a riot broke out on Palm Island.

Despite the findings of the coronial inquiry, Queensland's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Leanne Clare, decided not to press charges against Hurley. Clare found that Mulrunji's injuries were sustained when he and Hurley both fell to the ground at the police station.

But a review of the DPP's decision by former New South Wales chief justice Sir Laurence Street in January found that there was enough evidence to charge Hurley.

Queensland Police Union (QPU) president Gary Wilkinson described the process as a "witch-hunt". The QPU has threatened to march on parliament in protest at the government's handling of the case.

Requests by IPS for an interview were turned down by the QPU this week.

That the case has actually made it to court is perhaps indicative of progress being made regarding aborigines' rights while in police custody, says Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council chief, Barry Moyle.

"It was the first time that they'd (aboriginal community) ever had a (coroner's) report like that and the first time something like this has gone to court. So, in terms of have they progressed any further, maybe they have. But when you start looking at the deaths in custody statistics that were done many years ago, whether we've progressed a heck of a lot or not is debatable," Moyle told IPS.

Due to the large numbers of aborigines dying while in police custody, the government established the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1987. The commission found that the high number of aboriginal deaths in custody was commensurate with the number of aborigines imprisoned, rather than different treatment towards aborigines.

In 2003, indigenous Australians, who make up roughly 2.4 percent of the country's population, represented 20 percent of the prison population. They represented 26 percent of deaths in custody (10 out of 39) in that year.

Sam Watson argues that while Hurley is the first policeman to face charges like these, he is not the first officer to be involved in the death or injury of an aboriginal person. "It's just the first occasion in which a police officer has been charged. The system has betrayed generations of Aboriginal people. We are very keenly watching this trial," he says.

Watson views the trial as a way of putting police on notice. "Police officers across Queensland must be held criminally accountable for their actions in relation to any deaths, in relation to any injuries sustained by prisoners. Just because police officers are wearing blue uniforms doesn't mean that they're exempted from any form of criminal accountability.''

On Palm Island itself, Barry Moyle says that the relationship between the community and the 17 police officers based there are already much better than they were.

"They get on pretty well," he says. "(But) you can always have some tension in communities with police because the police have to implement the laws that the state government applies."

But the effects of Mulrunji's death continue to be felt by the Palm Island community. "There is still a great deal of hurt and pain within the people on Palm Island and across the aboriginal community," says Watson.

Some sense of closure, says Watson, might result from a guilty verdict. "But certainly, it's not going to bring our brother back to life. Or his mother or his son," says Watson.

Mulrunji's mother, Doris Doomadgee, died of cancer less than a month after Mulrunji's death. His son, Eric, hanged himself on Palm Island, aged 18, in July 2006. Eric's suicide occurred three days before the resumption of the inquest into his father's death.

The jury has retired to consider its verdict.

Source: IPS Italy

Further information: palm island issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page