Palm Island man 'bashed to death by policeman'
PALM Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee died after being bashed by a Queensland policeman, according to a damning coronial finding issued yesterday.
The coroner found that police left the Aboriginal man to die after the bashing, despite cries for help, and later made no attempt to resuscitate him.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said yesterday that the coroner's report had been forwarded to the state's Director of Public Prosecutions with a view to criminal charges being laid, a move welcomed by the dead man's cousin, Alec Doomadgee.
"If there's anyone with any common sense they will look at this report and know something very suspect has gone down and someone should be charged," Mr Doomadgee said.
Mulrunji Doomadgee's death in a Palm Island cell in November, 2004 sparked riots that culminated in the razing of the island's police station.
In her report yesterday, acting state coroner Christine Clements said that Mr Doomadgee, 36, arrested for public drunkenness, had hit Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley first.
"Senior Sergeant Hurley lost his temper … (and) hit Mulrunji whilst he was on the floor a number of times," Ms Clements said.
"After this occurred, I find there was no further resistance or indeed any speech or response from Mulrunji. I conclude that these actions of Senior Sergeant Hurley caused the fatal injuries."
Mr Doomadgee suffered four broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and a liver almost split in half.
Police made "no attempt whatsoever" to check Mr Doomadgee's condition after the bashing, the coroner said.
Video footage shown to the coroner showed Mr Doomadgee writhing in pain as he lay dying on the cell floor, crying out for help.
"It was not until (fellow policeman) Sergeant Leafe suspected that Mulrunji might in fact be dead that any close scrutiny was paid," the coroner said.
"No attempt at resuscitation was made by any police officer, even when there was a degree of uncertainty about whether Mulrunji had died."
In her 40-page report, the coroner said the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had been ignored.
Ms Clements said that Mr Doomadgee should never have been arrested given that arrest should be a last resort in the case of minor offences.
Among 40 recommendations, Ms Clements recommended that the Queensland Government urgently consider establishing a centre on Palm Island for drunks as an alternative to police custody.
She savaged the involvement of officers from Townsville and Palm Island in the investigation of Mr Doomadgee's death as inappropriate, saying it "undermined the integrity of the investigation".
"In all deaths in custody, officers investigating the death should be selected from a region other than that in which the death occurred," she said.
"It was completely unacceptable for investigators to eat dinner at Hurley's house while the investigation was being conducted."
Mr Beattie said the Government had set up a task force to review the coroner's recommendations and cabinet would consider the results of the review before the year's end.
"I promised to the people of Palm Island that due process would follow appropriately, and these things will be looked at fully and properly," Mr Beattie said.
Palm Island Mayor Erykah Kyle said that Senior Sergeant Hurley, now based on the Gold Coast, should have stepped down immediately after Mr Doomadgee's death.
Mr Doomadgee was survived by his partner of 10 years, Tracey Twaddle, and his sisters, Jane, Elizabeth and Valmai.
WithAAP