Kathy Newnam, Darwin
As the case against the NT government and three prison officers for the murder of Douglas Scott in Berrimah prison on July 5, 1985, draws to a close, the depth of the cover-up surrounding his death has been exposed.
The case, brought by Douglas's widow Letty and son Nathan, is the first time police or prison officers have faced court for murder over an Aboriginal death in custody.
On April 29, the NT Supreme Court heard the last witness for the defence, Dr Kevin Lee, who carried out the original autopsy on Douglas's body and found the death to be consistent with suicide.
The court heard that Lee had qualified under and worked as a pathologist for the illegal apartheid regime in Southern Rhodesia during the years 1970-77. Lee was employed as a pathologist by the NT government at the time of Douglas's death, despite a 1970 UN Security Council resolution calling on member states not to afford any recognition to qualifications received from this regime.
Lee claimed that the marks apparent on Douglas's neck in photos of his body were nothing but "lighting artefacts" and "the natural skin folding of the region".
While the seven leading international forensic experts who gave evidence earlier in the trial rejected this claim outright, it was backed by the other Australian scientists called for the defence, including photographic scientist Gael Spring, an associate professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and professor Steven Cordiner, the director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Daniel Taylor, legal counsel for Letty and Nathan, put it to Spring that his claim that the mark was an artefact was "a convoluted way of trying to explain away a bruise". Spring also denied the photographic evidence of white cotton wool-like material evident in Douglas's ear, claiming that it was "glossiness" of the photo.
Letty believes the Australian scientists are part of the continuing cover-up of Aboriginal deaths in custody. She angrily told Lee in the court that he was "covering [up] murder of our people". Taylor put it to Lee that he had knowingly concealed the injuries on Douglas's body.
The autopsy report also assumed that a stool was used in the hanging, despite there being no stool in the cell.
Cordiner, who was involved in the review of 20 of the cases investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, told the court that the autopsy on Douglas's body compared favourably to other cases investigated by the royal commission. He dismissed the concern that no photos had been taken of the autopsy, because only five of the 20 cases he had reviewed included autopsy photos.
The court also heard from David Williams, a consultant forensic pathologist and associate professor at the University of Queensland. Williams was engaged by the Qld government by the order of the NT Supreme Court as an independent participant in the re-autopsy of Douglas's body in early April. Williams acknowledged under questioning that he has a close working relationship with the forensic pathologist for the defence, Dr Ansford, including co-authoring a book with him.
Williams dismissed the fractures found during the re-autopsy as degeneration of the bone, a proposition rejected by the leading international forensic experts who earlier gave evidence. Upon being questioned regarding his findings, Williams refused to answer what he referred to as "stupid questions" about the cause of the bone degeneration, before leaving the cross-examination.
Williams and Ansford refused to accept the possibility that fractures found on Douglas's body in the re-autopsy could have been inflicted prior to death. "We put to you that saying this fracture is not from an assault is not a position you are entitled to take", Taylor said. "It could be from a homicidal assault couldn't it?" Williams refused to answer.
It was conceded by Ansford that the mark on Douglas's neck could be consistent with the application of a headlock or carotid sleeper hold. The court had earlier heard from prison officer George Wood that this hold, which can render a person unconscious in a matter of seconds and kill in under one minute, was taught in prison officer training until at least 1982.
The court also heard from former prison officer Harold Robertson, one of the accused (along with Barry Medley and Michael Lawson). Robertson's evidence of how Douglas's body was taken down was inconsistent with the testimony of other prison officers and with the photographs of Douglas hanging in the cell. He told the court that he was able to grab Douglas's body around the "butt" while standing upright, which would have meant Douglas's body hung well above the floor. This does not match with the police photos of the hanging, but is, according to Letty, consistent with what she saw in Polaroid photos (which are now missing) of Douglas hanging by a slipknot noose.
Robertson also told the court that making an attempt at CPR had never entered his mind.
The court also heard that the ambulance had not been called until one hour after the police. Police officers who had attended the scene were called by the defence, including Maurice Burke, who laughed at Taylor's question about the procedures followed in deaths in custody.
The case will conclude after further evidence from international forensic experts, who are being recalled to respond to new productions of the police photographs introduced by the defence during the trial.
From Green Left Weekly, May 4, 2005.
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