Call for Pinkenba police to stand trial

By Bill Mason BRISBANE — There was sufficient evidence for a jury to convict six police officers of depriving three Aboriginal youths of their liberty, John Gerard QC, representing the Aboriginal Legal Service told the Queensland Supreme Court on November 8. Gerard said that magistrate Robert Quinlan had made an error in law in February when he decided not to commit the officers, known as the Pinkenba Six, to trial. The police had faced committal proceedings for taking the three boys, then aged 12, 13 and 14, in three police cars from the Fortitude Valley Mall to Pinkenba, near the mouth of the Brisbane River on May 10 last year. Gerard said the magistrate should not have taken into account previous offences by the young Aborigines, or alleged inconsistencies in their testimony, when finding the police had no case to answer. "The fundamental issue was whether they got into the police car against their will", he said.

From GLW issue 211