A triage nurse who saw a Yamatji woman less than 24 hours before her death in custody told police officers she believed the 22-year-old could have been coming down off drugs, a coronial inquest has heard.
The inquest also heard that the belief that Ms Dhu’s symptoms were linked to her drugs was discussed at the South Hedland police station in the days following her death.
Ms Dhu, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons, died on 4 August 2014 from septicaemia caused by ribs broken several months earlier.
She had been arrested for unpaid fines and taken to South Hedland police station, 1,650km north of Perth, Western Australia, on 2 August. She was taken to hospital later that evening before being returned with a signed form declaring she was fit to be held in custody.
First class constable Vicki Eastman was one of the officers who arrested Dhu and later took her to hospital for her second visit on 3 August. She told the inquest at the Perth magistrates court on Wednesday that Dhu appeared “worse, a lot worse”.
Eastman told Philip Urquhart, the council assisting the coroner, that the triage nurse at the hospital “stated that she believed that Ms Dhu was having withdrawals and coming down from drugs, and that because of her high heart rate she would still have to see the doctor”.
When Urqhart suggested Dhu’s symptoms of generalised pain, shortness of breath and difficulty walking would be a “very severe example of withdrawal” from Dhu’s stated drug use, which was to take methylamphetamines once a fortnight, Eastman said: “I don’t know. I have never seen anyone suffering from withdrawals.”
The triage nurse, Alyce Hetherington, told the inquest last year that she attributed Dhu’s symptoms to drug withdrawal.
Senior constable Russell Tindall, who was acting sergeant and shift supervisor from 7am to 3pm on 3 August 3, told the court earlier that there were discussions at the station after Dhu’s death that she may have “been exaggerating in order to cope” with the symptoms of drug withdrawal.
Tindall said those conversations were “just on shift, just talking to others in the station… 10 or 12 people, just talking in a group”.
Constable Tamara Perry, who worked as lockup keeper alongside Tindall, told the inquest that she felt Dhu “was OK” because Dhu told her early in the day that she didn’t want to go back to hospital.
Perrysaid she had asked Dhu about her injuries about 8am, when she escorted her to the shower.
She said Dhu then told her that she had “sore ribs” and was hunched and holding her side.
“She said she had already been to the hospital and I asked if she required any further medical attention and she said she just wanted to lie down and go to sleep in her cell,” Perry said. “I advised her that if she required further medical attention to press the button in the cell and I would take her to hospital.”
She said she had told Dhu’s partner, Dion Ruffin, who raised concerns about Dhu’s health, that she had been to hospital and that “they [doctors at the hospital] wouldn’t have cleared her if she was not OK.”
Ruffin had been arrested alongside Dhu the day before.
Perry said she did not note that conversation in the custody record system and could not recall the details of conversations she had about Dhu with three other officers, including her supervisor, Acting Sergeant Russell Tindall, and the afternoon shift supervisor, Sergeant Rick Bond.
Hylton Quail, a lawyer for Dhu’s father, Robert, asked her why she had failed to make those notes, saying: “If you had been more diligent about recording things then we might actually know, rather than relying on your memory.”
Quail then asked Perry why she did had not responded to Dhu’s pressing of the cell intercom button at 1.17pm, 1.18pm, 1.38pm and 1.47pm.
Perry, who is not one of 11 officers that were disciplined by WA police for breaching regulations in the care of Dhu, said she was “possibly on a lunch break or doing other duties”.
The inquest continues.
