Ms Dhu death in custody: A family's long search for answers

Updated

More than two years have passed since a young Aboriginal woman died while being held in police custody in South Hedland, in Western Australia's Pilbara.

WA coroner Ros Fogliani has released her highly anticipated findings in the wake of an inquiry into the death of Ms Dhu, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons.

This is how the case unfolded.

Ms Dhu dies after three trips to hospital

August 4, 2014

Yamaji woman Ms Dhu, 22, dies on her third visit within 48 hours to Hedland Health Campus after complaining of feeling unwell at South Hedland Police Station.

She had been taken into custody two days earlier for $3,622 in unpaid fines, and had already been discharged from hospital twice and declared fit to return to her cell.

Ms Dhu's family demands answers and the WA Police internal affairs unit begins an investigation.

'Eerie similarities' with John Pat's death

September 28, 2014

There are "eerie similarities" between Ms Dhu's death and the tragic case of John Pat, the Aboriginal teenager who died from massive head injuries in a Roebourne police holding cell in 1983, the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee says.

Marching against deaths in custody

November 14, 2014

Ms Dhu's family takes part in a protest in Brisbane against Aboriginal deaths in custody ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit.

Her uncle Shaun Harris says she did not deserve to die.

Family demands urgent inquest

February 4, 2015

Ms Dhu's grandmother Carol Roe calls for an urgent inquest into Ms Dhu's death, saying there has been "no truth, no justice, no inquiries".

Coronial inquiry announced

April 30, 2015

A "very thorough" coronial investigation into Ms Dhu's death will begin later in the year, Premier Colin Barnett announces. The inquest is later scheduled to start in November.

Ms Dhu's death prompts changes

June 24, 2015

The WA Government responds to Ms Dhu's death by announcing that lock-ups will be made safer, some low-level offenders will be kept out of jail and youths will be diverted away from custody.

Rallies mark anniversary as family seeks answers

August 4, 2015

Rallies are held across the nation on the one-year anniversary of Ms Dhu's death.

Speaking at a march in Geraldton, Carol Roe says the family is "still waiting" for answers about what happened.

Police thought Ms Dhu was 'faking it'

November 23, 2015

The coronial inquest begins and hears police told medical staff they thought Ms Dhu was "faking it" before she died on her third hospital visit from previously undiagnosed septicaemia and pneumonia, caused by an infection from a broken rib.

Footage played to the inquest shows Ms Dhu being dragged from her cell unconscious by police on the morning of her death and carried into the back of a police vehicle, as well as crying and telling police she was in pain.

The last scene shows Ms Dhu being taken out of the paddy wagon, slumped into a wheelchair and wheeled into Hedland Health Campus, less than an hour before she died.

Officers laughed at dying woman: partner

November 24, 2015

Ms Dhu's partner, who was in an adjacent cell at South Hedland Police Station, tells the inquest officers were laughing at her as she lay in her own vomit in the hours before she died.

Doctor admits mistake in not taking Ms Dhu's temperature

November 27, 2015

A doctor who examined Ms Dhu the night before she died tells an inquest it was a "significant failure" not to take her temperature in hospital.

Sergeant thought 'junkie' Ms Dhu was coming off drugs

March 23, 2016

The inquest hears from former police sergeant Rick Bond, who says he believed Ms Dhu was "coming down from drugs" and "faking illness" to try to get out of the cells.

Mr Bond admits he may have called her a "junkie" to other officers, but rejects the testimony of another officer that he had whispered in her ear "you're a f***ing junkie, you will sit this out".

The inquest is told on the third occasion Ms Dhu went to hospital, he told her: "This is the last f***ing time you're going to hospital."

'Distressing' CCTV footage withheld by coroner

March 24, 2016

On the last day of the inquest, coroner Ros Fogliani refuses to release "distressing" security footage of Ms Dhu in custody in the two days leading up to her death, despite her family calling for it to be made available in the public interest.

Family members had earlier opposed the release of the footage before changing their mind.

Family joins Perth CBD protest

April 15, 2016

Carol Roe and Ms Dhu's younger sister Yolanda march with other family members through the Perth CBD to mark 25 years on from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Renewed call for CCTV footage after Don Dale

July 27, 2016

Ms Dhu's family renews calls for security footage of her final hours to be released, after an ABC Four Corners program reveals severe mistreatment of teenage boys at the Don Dale Detention Centre in the Northern Territory.

Coroner reconsiders releasing CCTV footage

September 28, 2016

The West Australian coroner reserves her decision over whether to publicly release the CCTV footage of Ms Dhu's final hours, after considering her family's request for it to be made available

The decision sparks more anger.

Topics: black-deaths-in-custody, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, police, courts-and-trials, port-hedland-6721, south-hedland-6722, wa, perth-6000

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