A police officer who is a key witness against Palm Island Aboriginal resident Lex Wotton has admitted at the trial that he lied during a previous investigation into senior sergeant Chris Hurley.
Wotton is facing one charge of "rioting with destruction", with up to 10 years' imprisonment, for his alleged role in the uprising that occurred a week after the death in police custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji in November, 2004.
The uprising — which involved 400 people, more than 10% of Palm Island's population — was an outpouring of anger after the residents were informed that Mulrunji's death, occurring within one hour of being taken into police custody without charge, was due to massive injuries including four broken ribs and a liver split in two.
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After a nationwide public campaign in which the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions initially refused to lay charges, Hurley was eventually brought to trial over Mulrunji's death. Despite changing his story from denying he had caused any injury to Mulrunji to admitting that he "must have" caused the fatal injuries due to an "accidental fall", Hurley was acquitted by an all-white Townsville jury.
However, the admission by detective sergeant Darren Robinson — a friend of Hurley who had worked with him for two years on Palm Island — that he lied during a previous investigation into Hurley, raises serious questions about the entire process.
Under cross-examination from Wotton's defence barrister, Clive Steirn, Robinson agreed he had investigated allegations that his friend, Hurley, ran over a woman's foot in a police car. Palm Island resident Barbara Pilot suffered a compound fracture and was taken to hospital. When asked whether he lied at the time he wrote in a report that two witnesses were "unidentifiable", even though their names were on a police log sheet, Robinson answered "yes".
Robinson later became one of the officers investigating Hurley over Mulrunji's death.
At Wotton's trial, witnesses have indicated that, rather than leading "rioting" and "destruction" as the prosecution alleges, Wotton repeatedly attempted to restrain the angry crowd.
"Lex was the only one trying to calm the tension", Hal Austin Walsh, who worked on the island at the time, told the court. He said, "Lex turned around to the crowd and said: 'Come on, people, let's leave these guys [police] alone'."
When the police were confronted at the Palm Island hospital, Wotton allegedly said, "You can't throw rocks here, there are
sick people in here", Walsh told the court. Wotton also asked Walsh, "Could you arrange for transport so these guys (police) can get to the airport safely?"
Earlier, the trial heard that the niece of Wotton was pressured by police to give evidence against him. Tiana Friday told the court she had given police a statement in order to "get out of there" after spending an entire day with investigators, while they searched her flat.
Despite being four months' pregnant, Friday said police did not offer her lunch or even a cup of tea. She said she had been "frightened", and that police had manhandled one of her friends. She told the court she had spent four or five hours at the police station before signing a statement and that, "You felt like you had to cooperate or else".
Friday said she would have "pretty much" said anything to be able to leave the police station.
While the trial continues, Aboriginal rights protests around Australia have called for the charges against Wotton to be dropped, along with demanding an end to the paternalistic interventions into the Northern Territory and Queensland. The Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) has organised regular protest vigils outside the trial.
The Sydney branch of the Maritime Union of Australia and other unions have lent support to the campaign, including a tour of Wotton and taking members to protests in Brisbane.
An ARC statement points out that the Palm Island uprising was a legitimate "act of anti-racist resistance", and that it was only because of such resistance that Hurley was brought to court in the first place. ARC argues that Hurley's "acquittal once again confirmed how stacked the legal system is against Aboriginal Australians".