Black death in custody: more evidence of murder cover-up

Kathy Newnam, Darwin

In the quest for the truth about her husband's death, Letty Scott has amassed evidence of the murder of Douglas Scott at the hands of prison guards in Berrimah prison on July 5, 1985 and the subsequent cover-up.

New evidence has now come to light challenging the reliability of Dr Kevin Lee, who carried out the original autopsy. In his findings, Lee claimed to have found no evidence of the beatings that were witnessed by two men in the adjoining cell. He also continues to deny the existence of injuries that can be seen on Douglas' body in photos taken after his death. Some of the world's leading forensic experts have confirmed the injuries in these photos.

Lee served as a commanding senior pathologist for the white minority regime in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the years of 1970-1977 — a period of war against the black majority and executions of freedom fighters.

A sworn statement has been filed in the NT Supreme Court by US epidemiologist Dr Meryl Nass. Nass researched the history of the Rhodesian army as part of a study she carried out over three years into the anthrax epidemic in Zimbabwe, which occurred from 1978-1980, at the end of the civil war. Nass states that while she does not have personal knowledge of Lee, "a white forensic pathologist working for the government during this war would almost certainly have been asked to certify deaths due to military action, poisoning, etc. as occurring due to natural causes".

A 1970 UN Security Council resolution called upon member states to "take appropriate measures, at the national level, to ensure that any act performed by officials and institutions of the illegal regime in Southern Rhodesia shall not be accorded any recognition, official or otherwise, including judicial notice, by the competent organs of their state".

Nass has also submitted evidence that Lee misled the courts during legal proceedings, currently underway in the NT, when he claimed to have received his degree in Britain. There is evidence that he graduated in Rhodesia in 1968.

Letty Scott believes that this evidence exposes Lee as a liar and constitutes grounds for his disqualification from the legal proceedings that are currently underway in the NT courts. She believes that he concealed the murder of her husband "to protect the four prison officers who murdered Douglas".

Letty is fighting in civil proceedings in the NT courts to quash the findings of the original inquest, which found that Douglas committed suicide. She believes that the new evidence that has come to light, along with the mass of forensic and eyewitness evidence, will be crucial in proving these findings were nothing more than a cover-up of murder.

Those in the NT can lend their support for Letty's quest for justice by attending the court case in the NT Supreme Court on April 11-18. Letty has also brought criminal charges against seven people for Douglas' murder and the cover up — these charges will go to a committal hearing in the Darwin Magistrates Court on April 19.

From Green Left Weekly, January 26, 2005.

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From GLW issue 612