A former police sergeant in charge of the South Hedland Police station has told the inquest into the death of an Indigenous woman that it was in the back of his mind that she might have been faking her symptoms in the lead up to her death.
The inquest had heard that as the 22-year-old Indigenous woman lay almost motionless in her prison cell bed in South Hedland Police Station slurring her words, one of the three officers standing above her leaned in and whispered to her that she was a “f---ing junkie”.
The allegation was made in evidence given to the coronial inquest into the death of Ms Dhu, whose first name isn’t used for cultural reasons.
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Today in a Perth courtroom that officer, former Sergeant Rick Bond, denied saying that to the critically ill woman on August 4, 2014.
Vision of the cell’s interior was played in court on Wednesday showing the then sergeant leaning down to Ms Dhu.
Mr Bond, who has since left the police force, told the court that he was leaning in closer because he couldn’t hear her properly.
He said he started to change his mind at that point that Ms Dhu – who had been to hospital twice before in as many days – was faking her illness in order to get out of custody.
He said he told her, in front of two other officers, that it would be the last time he was going to send her to hospital.
She would be pronounced dead in hospital less than two hours later.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Philip Urquhart, put it to Mr Bond that his comments showed he was not genuinely concerned about her welfare and believed she was still faking her illness.
Mr Bond said it meant she would either stay in hospital or come back.
He also explained away any swear words that may have been directed at Ms Dhu was the common parlance in the Pilbara region and it did not mean he was angry.
He said he was frustrated with the whole situation including the lack of information on the medical forms provided by the hospital saying she was fit to be held in custody.
Before visiting Ms Dhu’s cell, the court heard Mr Bond told Senior Constable Shelly Burgess to give Ms Dhu a shower because he thought it would make her feel better as it had appeared to the previous day.
An image of a protest outside of the inquest into the death of Ms Dhu on 23 March, 2016. (SBS) Source: SBS
The court heard that Mr Bond told the officer that Ms Dhu was withdrawing from drugs.
Mr Urquhart asked him: “Did you call Ms Dhu a junkie?”
“That’s a possibility at that point,” Mr Bond replied.
“Did you tell her (Constable Burgess) that she was faking it?”
“I may have expressed that concern,” he said.
Mr Bond said he couldn’t remember if he’d been told Ms Dhu couldn’t get up and out of bed.
Vision played to the court of the cell interior showed Ms Dhu struggling to lift herself up from the bed on two occasions.
“I would have not sent her for a shower if she could not get up,” Mr Bond told the court.
He denied telling the officer that he wanted her to have a shower so he could tell Ms Dhu, who he expected to feel better, that she was “full of sh-t”.
In custody for fines of $3,622
Ms Dhu was taken into custody at South Hedland Police Station on Saturday, August 2 for more than $3,662 worth of unpaid fines.
She was taken to hospital on the first day complaining of sore ribs, but was returned to custody after being given pain killers.
The next day Mr Bond started his shift and said he was told by the hand-over officer that Ms Dhu was coming off drugs.
Later that day, he visited Ms Dhu’s cell and spoke to her for the first time.
He said he couldn’t remember if she appeared in pain, but had complained of sore ribs.
He gave her two paracetamol tablets.
Mr Bond said he rang her father Robert Dhu and during their conversation her father said Ms Dhu had, on occasion, taken the drug ice.
Later that day, Ms Dhu is captured on CCTV footage appearing to be in “much distress” and pointing at her chest.
She was taken to hospital, but Mr Bond testified that the officers who took her phoned him later and inferred she was withdrawing from drugs.
However there was no diagnosis given on her medical form when Ms Dhu was returned to custody.
The next day, the final day of Ms Dhu’s life, the then sergeant returned for his shift and was told Ms Dhu had slept well during the night.
However, the court heard that an officer passing the cells noticed that Ms Dhu had thrown up in a small cup.
It would be several hours before Mr Bond visited Ms Dhu’s cell.
He told the court he expected that that the officer in charge of cells would be monitoring the situation.
Ms Dhu died at the Hedland Health Campus of complications for a fractured rib.
Her family and supporters gathered outside the court on Wednesday to protest deaths in custody and called for legal action to be taken against the officers involved.
They are demanding that a custody notification system be implemented in Western Australia immediately.
The inquest continues.
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