Kylie Moon, Sydney
Family and friends were angry and in tears on August 14 after hearing the NSW coroner's findings on the death of the 17-year-old son of Gail Hickey. Coroner John Abernathy described the February 14 fatality in Redfern as a "freak accident", and exonerated the police who were pursuing him at the time.
Racist policing in Redfern, a suburb with a large Aboriginal population, has long been a source of problems. The death of the young Aboriginal man, whose name the family have requested not be published, sparked an explosion of anger so intense among black youth that the police branded it "one of the worst riots" in Redfern's history.
The coroner's report explained that the man had died "of penetrating injury of neck and chest sustained on the morning of 14th February when he fell from his bicycle and was impaled upon a steel fence", but said that the police were "following" rather than "chasing" the young man at the time. Gail Hickey has explained many times that, like most young black men in Redfern, her son was terrified of the police. Nevertheless, Abernathy said: "I am unable to find that as a probability that the actions of [the police] in following [the young man] contributed in any way to his death."
"It breaks my heart. All I wanted was justice and the truth to come out", said Gail Hickey. The findings were "worse than expected", said Ray Jackson, the president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association and a member of the Socialist Alliance. Jackson described the coroner's court as a "police court".
Abernathy found that Constable Michael Hollingsworth, driving a patrol car in the area that night, decided to follow the young man because he was "a person of interest" and that the police car travelled 1"most of the way" down the path "in some proximity" to the bike. Abernathy explained that he could only tell whether Hollingsworth's interest was "determined" or "casual" by getting evidence from Hollingsworth. However, Abernathy had excused Hollingsworth — probably the most important witness — from giving evidence.
The other police officer in the car, Constable Lee Reynolds, was described by Abernathy as "quite a poor witness with an extraordinary lack of memory of what I would have thought were significant events".
Abernathy said that constables Allan Rimell and Ruth Rocha were "doing their best to tell the truth" and even went as far as commending the police officers involved, saying that they "did their best to carry out first aid, pending the arrival of ambulance personnel" in "horrific and extremely upsetting" circumstances. This is despite the fact that the police removed the young man from the fence, against basic first aid training.
Abernathy commended Hollingsworth for "leadership and effort". Since the incident, Hollingsworth has been promoted.
The young man's photograph had been displayed in the police lunchroom, marked, "High Risk Offender Profile", and Abernathy noted that Rimmell and Rocha gave contradictory accounts of whether they recognised the young man when they found him impaled on a fence. However, he accepted police statements that they did not recognise him.
Abernathy also noted with concern that the police did not follow NSW coroner protocols in promptly separating the officers involved and interrogating them as soon as possible. In fact, the police officers were off duty for almost a week before they were questioned. All four police officers involved were in the room when each gave their statements, and they discussed their statements with senior officers.
Many questions remain unanswered. Gaps in police radio reports were unexplained, the young man's bike has still not been presented, there is no explanation why a police emergency vehicle was turned away before the ambulance arrived, one witness's whereabouts are unknown, another had their car set on fire and many local residents have been intimidated completely from speaking out with concerns about what happened. Said Jackson, "What we need in such a case of death-in-custody is a fully independent inquiry that includes Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders."
From Green Left Weekly, August 25, 2004.
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