Family rejects Hurley apology
13.03.2010
By: TONY KOCH
THE policeman who was charged with manslaughter over the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee yesterday apologised to the Aborigine's family.
Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, appearing at the reconvened inquest into Doomadgee's 2004 death in north Queensland, said he was sorry for the ``angst'' of the islander's partner and loved ones.
As Doomadgee's former defacto Tracey Twaddle, his sister Valmae Aplin and other relatives looked on, Sergeant Hurley for the first time expressed sympathy to them.
``There is nothing further I can say in regard to evidence but I have always wanted to say to Tracey and the family that I offer my sincere sympathy for Mulrunji's death and I am sorry for that angst they have had to suffer over the last number of years,'' he told the inquest.
Doomadgee, 36, suffered fatal internal injuries, including aruptured liver, after he scuffled with Sergeant Hurley and they both fell to the concrete floor of the Palm Island police station.
Sergeant Hurley has consistently denied -- and reaffirmed in his evidence yesterday -- that he did anything or took any action that caused Doomadgee's injuries, likened in medical evidence to that of a victim of a plane or high-speed car crash.
Ms Aplin said outside court the apology was ``too little, too late''.
``Perhaps if Chris Hurley had come to all of us five years ago and sat down and explained what happened to my brother, it would have been able to be talked through,'' she said.
``And had he done that, perhaps Eric would still be alive.''
Eric Doomadgee, 18, the only child of Mulrunji, took his own life in 2006, on Palm Island, 19 months after his father's death.
Sergeant Hurley was asked by counsel for the Queensland Attorney-General, Peter Davis, how such grievous injuries could have been sustained by Doomadgee, when no one else had contact with him after his arrest for public nuisance offences.
Mr Davis said: ``So some part of your body has come into contact so violently as to cleave his liver across his spine and you have missed it?''
Sergeant Hurley: ``Yes.''
The five-day inquest, the third to be convened into the death, concluded yesterday and submissions by counsel are to be given to Coroner Brian Hine by April 1. After considering those submissions, Mr Hine will bring down his finding on how Doomadgee died and whether anyone contributed to the death.
Sergeant Hurley was acquitted of Doomadgee's manslaughter at a 2007 trial and applied successfully to have set aside another coroner's finding that he was responsible for the death.
