Constable dismisses suggestion that according to police checklist he should have taken her to hospital

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The police officer who arrested Tanya Day at Castlemaine train station said he did not think she needed medical attention despite police guidelines stating that intoxicated people who cannot provide intelligible answers should be sent to hospital.

Senior Constable Stephen Thomas told an inquest into the 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman’s death in custody that he also did not tell her she had been placed under arrest, saying it was “the most low-key arrest I have ever done”.

Thomas is the first police officer to give evidence at the inquest, which began on Monday and is focused on the decision to arrest Day on 5 December 2017, on a charge of being drunk in public.

She was arrested at Castlemaine station after the conductor on the V/Line service to Melbourne deemed her drunk and “unruly” and incorrectly believed she didn’t have a ticket.

Tanya Day inquest: police officer says he was 'trying to look after her' Read more

Thomas told Catherine Fitzgerald, the council assisting the coroner Caitlin English, that he had considered calling an ambulance when he first spoke to Day on the train because she was unable to meaningfully communicate.

He said her responses to him were “60% moans and groans and 40% I could pick up on”, and added: “I was worried for her welfare. I just didn’t think she was in complete control.”

Both he and the V/Line conductor, Shaun Irvine, said they had acted out of concern for Day’s safety.

Thomas told Fitzgerald he had used his powers of arrest to compel Day to leave the train, saying she was being arrested for being drunk in a public place. But he added that he had not communicated that to her.

Later, his partner constable Aaron Towns said that the word “arrest” was never said out loud between any of the police in attendance.

Play Video 1:14 Tanya Day inquest shown CCTV footage of arrest on V/Line train – video

“It was probably the most low-key arrest I have ever done,” Thomas said. “I didn’t formally say you are under arrest, I just expressed that I wanted her to come with me, and I guess by compelling her to come with me, that’s a form of arrest.”

Thomas said Day’s demeanour had improved after they left the train and spoke on the platform and, at that point, he formed the view that neither an ambulance nor any other medical assistance were required.

He said he had been performing an “ongoing” mental assessment of the health and welfare risks, as per the police medical checklist. The checklist, contained in the police manual, sets out the requirements for dealing with intoxicated persons.

If an intoxicated person is unable to provide intelligible responses, Fitzgerald read from the guide, police should “send to hospital or seek urgent medical advice”.

Tanya Day died 17 days after falling asleep on a train. Now her family want answers Read more

Thomas dismissed a suggestion that, according to that checklist, he should have taken Day to hospital, because of her improvement on the platform.

He said it had never been his intention that Day would be taken into custody and he had hoped a friend or family member could be found to collect her, but they were unable to arrange that before they left the station.

He didn’t think Day was so drunk that it posed a health risk. The inquest has heard that Day’s blood alcohol level was estimated to be 0.30, six times the legal limit for driving.

Towns rated her level of intoxication as 7.5 out of 10. Immediately after he and Thomas left the train station, they went to a hotel to pick up a woman Towns described in contemporaneous notes as “highly intoxicated.” They did not arrest her or issue an infringement for public drunkenness but instead left her to wait in the hotel for a period, before driving her home.

Towns said the circumstances in that case were different.

Day died in St Vincent’s hospital on 22 December from a brain haemorrhage caused by falling in the Castlemaine police cells, where she was held for four hours to “sober up”.

The inquest continues.