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Letty Scott fights for the truth

by Kathy Newnam

4 June 2004 - On June 18, the Northern Territory Supreme Court will hear an appeal to re-open the coronial inquest into the death in custody of Douglas Bruce Scott. The case has been lodged by his widow Letty Scott, who has been fighting for nearly two decades for the truth about her husband's death.

Scott died in Darwin's Berrimah jail on July 5, 1985. He was 26 years old, and was being remanded in custody on a charge of "indecent language". The remand warrant was unlawful, as it allowed for the incarceration of Scott for 60 days - four times longer than the legal period at the time. Despite this, the commissioner's report found that he was in lawful custody at the time of his death.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the police inquest, along with the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, ruled Scott's death to be suicide.

Letty Scott's appeal for the reopening of the case follows the findings of a report by leading British pathologist Guy Rutty.

Rutty told the NT News on April 26: "I do agree that considering the age of the deceased and the findings that are present in the scene and autopsy examination, particularly to the neck, that it does raise a suspicion that this may not be what it appears."

This finding was consistent with a previous report by a group of leading forensic scientists, commissioned by Letty Scott with the help of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of America. The report, released in 2000, found that the marks on his neck were "more consistent with manual neck compression than with hanging mechanisms". This report also found that there was a large amount of evidence that was not considered in the investigations into Scott's death.

Fellow prisoners have also made sworn statements that prison guards beat Douglas during his time in prison, including on the night of his death.

According to Letty Scott, "The truth has its way of rising to the surface and the world will know that Douglas was murdered and the international scientists will come into Australia and exhume Douglas' remains".

Ray Jackson of the Indigenous Social Justice Association is applying to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services to provide the funds for the exhumation and re-autopsy.

Supporters of social justice are encouraged to attend the court hearing on June 18. Phone Mick Lambe for more information on 0408 893 142 or email .

Source: Green Left Weekly

Dear Chief Justice Martin, I am shocked and horrified by your letter

by Letty and Nathan Scott

17 June 2004 - "There is no justice in the Northern Territory for Aboriginal people. The brutal murderers of Douglas Scott will escape the retribution so readily meted out to his countrymen. Not only were his murderers white, they were prison guards. And in common with the racists that run the English Courts in Australia, servile custodians to a tradition of genocidal injustice that has continued for over two hundred years." - (Mick Lambe, Coordinator PARIAH: People Against Racism In Aboriginal Homelands.)

Chief Justice's Chamber
Supreme Court
State Square
Darwin NT 0800

By Facsimile Transmission

Ms Letty Scott

Dear Ms Scott

I refer to your notice of 10 June 2004 addressed to the Solicitor for the Northern Territory and to your email of 11 June 2004. In that notice and email you advised your intention to call evidence from the persons named on 18 June 2004. In the email you advised the persons named that "the Court" would call each one of those persons as "medical forensic expert witnesses in your own right".

I have brought your notice and email to the attention of the Chief Justice. He has asked me to inform you that he will not be taking evidence from those persons on 18 June 2004. The Court will not be establishing the telephone links that you have identified in your email.

The Chief Justice has asked me to remind you that no orders were made on 28 April 2004 for the calling of evidence on 18 June 2004. On 28 April 2004 his Honour ordered that the following matters be heard on 18 June 2004:

Scott & Anor v Bowden & Ors (47/03)

(i) The issue of the subpoena directed to the relevant Minister in Queensland.

(ii) The application by the defendants to strike out part of the amended Statement of Claim.

(iii) The time within which the defendants are to file their defences.

Scott & Anor v Attorney-General for the Northern Territory of Australia & Anor (14/04)

(i) The application by the plaintiffs for summary judgment.

I have forwarded a copy of this letter to the solicitors for the defendants in both matters.

I confirm that the hearing on 18 June 2004 is to commence at 10am.

Yours sincerely

Sachi Haga
Associate to the Chief Justice

______________________________

Dear Chief Justice Martin

In response to your letter sent on your behalf by your associate Sachi Haga this Monday 14th June 2004, I am completely left in dismay that you refuse to hear the witnesses whom the defendants said in their submissions and you yourself said would have to give their evidence by affidavit and by appearance at Court.

As plaintiffs we complied with your Court and the Court rules and the laws of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory to the letter. We supplied all the evidence by affidavit and arranged for each witness who put in an affidavit (and the evidence within the Affidavit) to appear in Court - which was demanded by Counsel for my husband's killers and for the Attorney General - Solicitor Greg MacDonald and Michael Grant.

You yourself said that everything has to be put in by affidavit and to have the witnesses appear at Court. Having no money the next best thing I could arrange for all the witnesses to come to Court by telephone and give their evidence in accordance with the provisions of the Evidence Act. I am so shocked that your Court can treat these witnesses and international police forensic scientists with no respect at all.

From day 1 you have accepted only evidence from the prison officers and the Solicitor for the Northern Territory Mr Greg MacDonald, and from Kevin Patrick Lee and Michael Alfred Stevens - and you accepted the affidavit of Dr Kevin Patrick Lee and Michael Alfred Stevens but you don' t want to accept any evidence from any forensic police scientists, eyewitnesses, Barrister, Solicitor and police officer Robert Dow who all interviewed the eyewitnesses to the murder of my husband Douglas Bruce Scott.

You won't even have the eyewitness who swore an affidavit and put it in the Court. So therefore you do what you want to do because there is no just court in this land of Australia when it comes to Aboriginal Australia, especially when white Australian prison officers murder an Aborigine.

Australia is a very racist nation that has murdered Aboriginal people and got away with it for too long. You make your decision on all the evidence that's filed in your Court. You're a judge. Like I said, I am just shocked that you people asked for the witnesses to come to Court and we organise it by telephone, and you don' t allow them to come to Court.

We the plaintiffs Letty Scott and Nathan Scott say our last words to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory of Australia, or any Court in Australia - make your judgement based on all the evidence we have filed in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory pertaining to the unlawful imprisonment, murder, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice of Douglas Bruce Scott. We have no money to keep coming back to your Court so make your judgement please.

Justice Martin, the truth always stands. Douglas was murdered and the truth never dies. You people have to face that fact that Douglas was murdered by four white Australian prison officers and the blood of Douglas is on your hands if you deny justice as we have given you all evidence to prove murder.

You are tying my hands and preventing evidence from being brought to Court and you are denying the international police forensic scientists and coroners to come to Court from the USA and UK, and denying the opportunity to the eyewitness Jeffrey Bindai who is willing and able and available to give his evidence in Court which he has never been given the opportunity to do, and he has stated on his affidavit about my husband's murder by four white officers and that he was threatened to shut his mouth up or that he would be next.

You won't allow this evidence in your court on Friday 18th June 2004. Yet you and the Counsel for the prison officers demanded that we have the eyewitnesses and the international police scientists and coroners put their evidence in by Affidavit and be available for cross examination. We complied with your requests and the request of Counsel for the defendants and now you deny us permission to have any witnesses into Douglas' murder come to court - yet you've already accepted the Affidavits of the Australians Dr Kevin Patrick Lee and Michael Alfred Stevens who covered my husband's murder.

Make your judgement on both cases - 14 of 2004 and 47 of 2003, and give summary judgement for the plaintiffs in both cases on the 18th June 2004. The plaintiffs will never put our foot in any Australian Court again. Make your judgement on the evidence. Jail my husband's murderers and pay us, the family, compensation for all the evil murder and torture and unlawful imprisonment of my husband and the persecution and wickedness which we - Douglas's wife and children have had to endure in Australia over these twenty years coming this 5th July 2004.

You will face the true God and He will hold you as the judge and the Court to account for your judgement, as you as a judge hold a really serious position and will not take evidence of murder when it is available, as it is this Friday 18th June 2004. You are supposed to take the true evidence of murder and not put a blockade up to prevent witnesses from coming to Court. We won't be coming back to your Court because you want me to be in Court but won't let me bring my witnesses, so make your summary judgement on both cases on 18th June 2004.

Sincerely
Dated the 14th day of June 2004
Letty Scott and Nathan Scott
Plaintiffs

Black death in custody - The real story

by Mick Lambe

26 April 2004 - Imagine the scenario... 60 days on remand (unjust enough) for allegedly swearing in a Darwin hotel. And we are supposed to believe the prisoner hanged himself. Photos of this tragic event show the deceased's feet touching the ground.

"Widow asks NT Prison Officers...

...Why did you murder my Husband Douglas Scott'"

Douglas Scott was a member of the Anmatyerre Aboriginal Nation of Central Australia. In 1985, he was arrested in Darwin, Northern Territory for allegedly swearing in public.

He was kept in custody for 60 days and allegedly beaten by the police and prison guards. On the morning of July 5, Douglas Scott died while in custody. Subsequent trials found that he committed suicide, and photographs were produced by the police in which Mr. Scott was hanging by a bed-sheet in his prison cell.

Letty Scott, aboriginal mother and widow of Douglas, was never satisfied with this finding, and has struggled ever since to have the case re-opened. She managed to get information from other prisoners incarcerated at the same place as Douglas Scott at the time of his death - they testify that he was beaten by prison guards the night of his death.

Letty went further. She went to the UN Commission on Human Rights and made an oral submission. With the help of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of America, she got together a team of some of the world's most eminent forensic experts, who conducted a detailed analysis of the available evidence.

The forensic team took the view that a large amount of evidence had not been considered in determining Douglas Scott's fate, and that the marks on his neck were 'more consistent with manual neck compression than with hanging mechanisms'.

They produced a comprehensive Reconstruction Report of their findings and called for a new inquiry into the death of Douglas Scott.

---------------------------------------------------------

The Allegations

That Barrister Mr Michael Dodson as Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody case NT/7 into the death of Douglas Scott, concealed evidence. Unlawfully conspiring to prevent an eyewitness from giving his evidence to, and oral testimony before, the Royal Commission into the Death of Douglas Scott.

Namely Jeffrey Bindai's statement...

... that four Darwin Prison officers entered the cell of Douglas Bruce Scott carrying batons prior to his death.

...that he and other prisoners heard the sounds of the Prison Officers beating Douglas with batons and Douglas screaming for help.

...that when they screamed out to the Prison Guards to stop beating Douglas with batons, a Prison Guard with an eagle tattooed on his arm, told Jeffrey Bindai to shut his mouth or he would be next.

...that he next saw Douglas hanging and that he and Laurie Percy were forced to clean Douglas' blood from the walls, floor and toilet, inside Douglas' cell.

...that this evidence was taken by Solicitor Geoffrey Barbaro Assisting the Royal Commission, at Doon Doon Station from eyewitness Jeffrey Bindai.

It is alleged that this evidence and this statement "witness check list" of Jeffrey Bindai, taken there by Solicitor Barbaro, was concealed from the Royal Commission by Barrister Michael Dodson, Barrister Assisting the Royal Commission.

...that Barrister Mr Michael Dodson threatened the eyewitness Jeffrey Bindai to shut his mouth and not tell anyone about the things which the eyewitness testified to seeing and hearing on the night of Douglas Scott's murder and the morning after

...that Counsel Assisting: Barrister Mr Michael Dodson and Solicitor Assisting - Solicitor Geoffrey Barbaro, put a fraudulent statement before the witness to sign and made him sign it.

...that this false statement fabricated by Counsel Barrister Michael Dodson and Solicitor Geoffrey Barbaro was tendered before the Royal Commission into the Death of Douglas Scott with intent to mislead the Royal Commission, pervert the course of justice and to conceal Jeffrey Bindai’s true evidence.

...that Barrister Michael Dodson and Barrister Pat Loftus conspired to conceal the original two Polaroid photographs and their contents pictured therein, from the Royal Commission.

Royal Commission: Case NT/7

"Furthermore there is no evidence to suggest that he was improperly treated during his period at the prison, either by Prison Officers or other inmates."

COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT JOHNSTON,
QC 17 September 1990

Source: Territory Independant Media Collective

Call to reopen 1985 prison death case

by Edith Bevin

26 April 2004 - The widow of a Territory man who died in Darwin prison nearly 20 years ago has called for the case to be reopened.

Letty Scott is convinced her husband was murdered.

Douglas Scott, 26, was serving a 60-day prison term in 1985 for swearing in the Darwin Hotel when he was found hanging in his cell.

His feet were allegedly touching the ground.

Ms Scott's call for the case to be reopened follows a report by leading British pathologist Guy Rutty English.

After studying photographs and reports on the case, he cast doubt on the Territory coronial finding that the prisoner hanged himself in his cell.

"I do agree that considering the age of the deceased and the findings that are present in the scene and autopsy examination, particularly to the neck, that it does raise a suspicion that this may not be what it appears," Professor English said.

He said he was not saying that the prisoner had been murdered.

But Ms Scott said the findings were recognition that a terrible injustice had been done.

"This is a gross human rights violation," she said.

"I've been fighting this case for 18 years.

"I'm even prepared to give up my Australian citizenship and move overseas because of this.

"Australia says it's a democratic nation but it condones murder -- it's not a place that I want to live.

"I want the coronial inquest reopened and its previous findings quashed."

Three fellow prisoners have made sworn affidavits that Mr Scott was bashed by prison guards before his death.

The statements are before Chief Justice Brian Martin of the NT Supreme Court.

He is hearing an application to quash the coronial inquest.

The next hearing is on Wednesday.

Source: Territory Independant Media Collective

Boss queries pair's killing sentences

By JOHN LOIZOU

July 27, 2002 - A veteran bushman and self-confessed poacher was yesterday mystified by the sentence given two young men for the shotgun "execution" of his former employee. Mr Wright, who employed all three men, said: "Troy Butcher (the dead man) worked seven days a week for eight years. He was like a son to me and a brother to my family."

Mr Wright served time in Fannie Bay jail after wildlife offences on the Mary River, south of Darwin, in the 1970s and was responding to the five-year sentence given Shane Robert Mulhall, 20, and David Vincent Parker, 24. "I got 12 months for killing a crocodile tangled in my nets with an axe and 12 months for catching barramundi illegally," he said yesterday.

Mulhall and Parker admitted to firing shotguns simultaneously into fellow commercial crabber Troy Butcher, 23, while he slept at their camp on the Wearyan River, about 100km east of Booroloola on February 9 last year.

Both pleaded guilty to manslaughter before Justice Trevor Riley at Alice Springs Supreme Court after their prosecution for murder was abandoned. They will be eligible for parole after 18 months' jail. "These two have got about the same for shooting a man in his sleep as I got for killing a crocodile and catching a fish," Mr Wright, 63, said. "It makes me wonder what is more valuable - the life of a man or the life of a fish. "They're mother said they're heroes. But you're not a hero to shoot someone in their sleep."

Mr Wright said the dead man was an Aborigine who arrived at his camp from Queensland. "I just wonder what would have happened if the situation had been reversed and two black men had shot a sleeping white man'" he said.

Source: Northern Territory News

Mother defends shotgun pair as 'heroes'

By EDWIN EDLUND

July 26 2002 - A crab fisherman jailed in Alice Springs for manslaughter was branded a "hero" by his mother yesterday. Mother-of-eight Janelle Ford, 41, said her son Shane Robert Mulhall saved the lives of his family and the Boorroloola community by killing Troy Butcher at Wearyan River on the Gulf of Carpentaria in February last year.

Mulhall, 20, and his friend David Vincent Parker, 24, were sentenced in the Supreme Court last week to a five-year jail term but could be paroled by the end of next year. Ms Ford, who described Parker as a stepson, said the pair had no choice but to shoot Butcher with shotguns after he had harmed and threatened to kill the pair and their families on numerous occasions. "I would say they are heroes," she said. "They were out on bail for a year and did nothing wrong. "They went to every court appearance and walked back into Booroloola for court and a few people shook their hands and said they were heroes in the town because a lot of people feared for their lives. "They are honest young men and you wouldn't call them killers, they are victims themselves."

Ms Ford said Butcher was a "nut" who tried to blow up the Booroloola Hotel while it was occupied by 150 people in July 2000. Justice Riley noted this incident in his sentencing remarks and said Butcher unscrewed the hose of a gas cylinder near the hotel kitchen and created a dangerous situation. A disaster was averted but Butcher made it clear at the time he wished he had "lit the gas himself to make sure the job was done". "Had he done so or had the gas been ignited from some other source the result would have been devastating in terms of human suffering and property damage," Justice Riley said. "Police were informed of Mr Butcher's conduct but it seems that no prosecution or other action resulted."

Ms Ford said Butcher could have killed Mulhall and Parker if they did not beat him to it because Butcher was a violent man who had harmed many locals and tourists in the past. "If people knew what the boys went through they would understand they didn't have a choice," she said. "When I found what had happened I was relieved because this guy was a nut." Ms Ford said the lives of Mulhall and Parker had improved since Butcher's death. "I saw the boys in prison in Alice Springs and I was rapt when I saw them," she said. "They looked healthy. They weren't distressed anymore over being frightened. "They weren't black under the eyes and they were eating food."

Source: Northern Territory News

Seven race bashings in one night

by Alan Hardie

26 February 2002 - Three seperate attacks described as "white against black" by Sgt Lade, occurred on Tuesday night.

At least seven homeless Aboriginal people were injured in the attacks.

Most of the people were asleep or intoxicated.

These cowardly attacks took place in Tiwi, Casuarina and Nightcliff.

Ms Margaret Collins (41) told of her beating by "four white thugs".

"I was walking by myself on my way to a shop to buy some food."

"I was minding my own business -- I was hungry".

"Then I was pushed on the ground."

"I was hurt and I looked up to see four white men."

"Some had sticks, I don't know how many".

"They hit me and hit me and there was a lot of blood."

"My arm was sore and I was very scared."

Margaret's partner Victor Gurruwiwi, heard her screaming.

"I was going over to see what had happened -- But a man was in front of me and he punched me in the face. When I fell down, some men punched me and kicked me."

"I didn't fight back because they had weapons behind them , like big sticks".

At Casuarina a carload of whites pulled up near some Aboriginal people and "basically got stuck into them".

Source: Northern Territory News

related links :

• Background: From - Asian Human Rights Commission - Douglas Scott Case

Further information: law and justice issues page - includes news index and external links

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