By John Nebauer
and Kerry Vernon
BRISBANE — The Criminal Justice Commission's public inquiry into the death in police custody of Aboriginal dancer Daniel Yock, 18, began here on November 24.
The original police account was that they were called to a disturbance in South Brisbane, where they arrested Yock and another Aboriginal youth. They left South Brisbane shortly after 6 p.m. and arrived at the city watch-house shortly thereafter. Upon arrival, they discovered that Yock was ill and called an ambulance, but he was dead on arrival at Royal Brisbane hospital.
Witnesses at the inquiry have contradicted police accounts at a number of important points.
Student Kenneth McNamara testified that he wondered why the police were driving around without calling an ambulance while a man in the back of the van appeared to be in distress. He said that he could see one Aborigine showing concern and trying to help another off the floor of the wagon.
McNamara, who lives in Bereton Street, where Yock was arrested, came from his bedroom at about 5.30 p.m. after hearing the screech of tyres. From his front door he saw a policewoman trying to handcuff an Aborigine lying on the ground.
An unmarked police car also pulled up, and a plain-clothes officer chased several Aboriginal youths toward a hostel further down the road. McNamara said that the van then drove to the hostel and circled five or six times.
He said that the first time the van circled, he saw one Aborigine trying to shake the other to wake him up.
Carolyne Davies was shocked at a policewoman trying to roll a weak and distressed Aborigine onto his stomach to handcuff his hands behind his back. She was also shocked that the officer was trying to stop the man from getting up because it "didn't seem like he could get up".
Her original impression was that the Aboriginal man had been attacked or stabbed. He looked "weak or in pain".
Vincent Antonio Costas was visiting a house in Bereton Street when he saw an Aborigine lying on the ground handcuffed behind his back. He said the man was moaning, and three police "just stood there never looking down to see if he was all right".
Hilton Purser saw a group of Aborigines drinking in Musgrave Park, and they left around 4.30 p.m. and walked down Edmonstone Street, doing nothing wrong.
Herman Schraut testified he saw a plain-clothes officer straddling an Aboriginal man on the ground and appearing to punch him. Schraut said he had the impression that the officer hit the Aborigine about the head or stomach five or six times.
Schraut said that after the paddy wagon drove off towards the hostel, he saw it driving around the area for the next 20 minutes.
During the second week the inquiry took evidence from eight Aboriginal youths involved during the arrest of Daniel Yock. Three had seen Daniel Yock lying on the ground "shaking all over" after being tackled by a police officer at West End. Two witnesses also testified they had seen a policewoman kick Yock as he lay handcuffed on the footpath.
Joseph Blair, 17, who was arrested and placed in the paddy wagon with Yock, swore that Yock was lying handcuffed face down; he was not breathing and Blair could not find Yock's pulse.
Blair said he had tried "heaps of times" to tell police about the condition of Yock as the paddy wagon carried them to the watch-house but had been ignored.
Blair had yelled to the police to take the handcuffs off Daniel Yock when the van pulled up at the watch-house, but the officers ignored him and walked away. "I also kept singing out and singing out along the street, along the main streets, and they just wouldn't reply to me. They wouldn't answer, they just ignored me", he said. Blair said that police at no time checked Yock's condition.
On December 2, the commission was told by the watch-house keeper, Snr-Sgt Darryl Melling, that police had breached regulations by driving Daniel Yock to the watch-house if they had any idea he was unconscious or ill.
The hearing resumes on December 13.