Police did not comply with their own guidelines for checking detainees because they were short-staffed on the night Aboriginal woman Tanya Day was in custody, an inquest has heard.
Leading senior constable Danny Wolters named lack of staff as one of the reasons he twice went more than 40 minutes between checking on the 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman, despite police guidelines requiring that an intoxicated person must be physically checked and roused every 30 minutes.
Wolters was the watch house keeper on 5 December 2017, when Day was taken to Castlemaine police station after being arrested for being drunk on a train.
Day died of a brain haemorrhage, caused by a fall in the police cells, on 22 December.
Wolters told an inquest on Wednesday that the timeframes set out in the guidelines, which describe the “minimum acceptable level” of care required for an intoxicated person in custody, were “a guide”.
He said the statement from paramedic Lisa Harrop, which said Wolters told her he had witnessed Day do a “slow roll fall” from a slumped seated position on the edge of the bed to the floor, was “totally incorrect”.
He said another account by a second paramedic, who said police had gone back through the tape and only noticed one fall, was “all totally incorrect”.
Wolters said he did not see Day fall but inferred, from seeing her on the bed one moment and on the floor the next, that she had done so.
Usually, he said, there would be three staff rostered on, with two to focus on custodial duties. On this day he was working alone with Sergeant Edwina Neale from 5pm. The inquest previously heard that the station Christmas party was on that night.
Wolters said a lack of other staff was one reason he and Neale decided to check on Day every 40 minutes, rather than 20.
“We had a conversation that we wanted Tanya to be comfortable and sleep, and I also got the impression that it was due to staffing issues,” Wolters said.
Neale told the inquest on Tuesday she had requested Day be physically checked every 20 minutes because as an Aboriginal woman she was “more vulnerable” in custody. Neale said they changed it to 40 minutes because Wolters told her that every time he spoke to Day it was “stirring her up”.
Wolters said he did not say that.
He said it was his usual practice to alternate physical checks, as required by the police guidelines, and checks on the CCTV camera. The custody logs showed four physical checks and five CCTV checks were made between 4.01pm and 8.12pm.
When Wolters and Neale made the final check, they noticed a bruise on Day’s head and called an ambulance.
Wolters said that every time he had conducted a physical check, he asked, “Are you OK, Tanya?” He said she always replied: “Yes.”
He agreed that the checks he conducted were not compliant with the guidelines.
Police guidelines require intoxicated people be checked in person every 30 minutes, to check if there has been a change to their “best verbal response.” Counsel for the Day family, Peter Morrissey SC, said that Wolters’ just obtained the word “yes” three times over four hours.
“How do you measure the first ‘yes’ against the second ‘yes’ or the third ‘yes’ to see if there has been a change in their best verbal response?” Morrissey said.
Wolters said his verbal checks on Day were probably “50% inadequate”.
He denied that the decision to change to 40-minute observations as criminally negligent.
He also denied that he had lied to the ambulance operator or exaggerated the level of care he had provided, in what Morrissey called a “self-serving commentary by you to make you look better rather than providing accurate information about the medical emergency that is occurring.”
He also rejected Morrissey’s suggestion that his statement, which said he “always had a discussion” with Day when he conducted a physical check, was “a false story you made up the next day to cover your inaction the day before,” and refuted a suggestion he was lying in the court room.
