A Northern Territory Indigenous man serving a two-year jail sentence for recklessly endangering the safety of a police aircraft is hoping to be compensated after lodging a complaint about the incident with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Key points: Patrick Cumaiyi was involved in an altercation on a police plane that a doctor says left him with swelling to parts of his skull

Patrick Cumaiyi was involved in an altercation on a police plane that a doctor says left him with swelling to parts of his skull But police say he was injured jumping out of a police car the next day

But police say he was injured jumping out of a police car the next day Cumaiyi is now seeking compensation and has lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission

On November 9, 2016, 30-year-old Patrick Cumaiyi was on a police plane from Wadeye — a remote community of about 3,000 people — to Darwin to face domestic violence charges in court.

In sentencing, the Supreme Court judge said Cumaiyi unbuckled his seatbelt while the plane was taxiing down the Wadeye airstrip and tried to move towards the cockpit, before assaulting a police officer who tried to stop him.

The judge said he lashed out at the police and that they punched him and used a baton to try to subdue him.

The judge also said the police did not use excessive force to restrain him on the plane, or when he was brought down onto the tarmac once the aircraft was stopped.

After the altercation, the police said he was fit for custody and put him in a watch house cell.

Staff at the Wadeye clinic assessed Cumaiyi after the incident and also found he was fit for custody.

But a former doctor from the clinic — who was not on duty the day Cumaiyi came in but later saw his health records — has now told the ABC that clinic staff had noted there was swelling in the left of his skull.

She has concluded that he received a significant head injury in the plane altercation and was put at risk of dying in custody by not being taken to hospital that day for a brain scan.

In Cumaiyi's medical records the Wadeye clinic staff said the: "prisoner was forcibly restrained with blows to the head. Observations, minor swelling to left temporal lobe, nil abrasions or bleeding in this area."

"Patrick sustained several blows to his head, his family say they saw him falling down the stairs of the aeroplane and tackled twice on the tarmac," the doctor said.

"[Clinic staff] noted he had a swelling over his left temporal area, but he was declared fit for custody, and he spent the night in the cells with a significant injury.

"Based just on the mechanism of injury, the height from which he [reportedly] fell and the fact that he had sustained multiple blows to the head, in most emergency departments around Australia he would have ended up having a CT brain (scan) on the same day.

"The left temporal area is very close to the weakest part of the skull and if you get a fracture in that area it is quite possible to end up with an intercranial bleed around the brain.

"So I think outside of remote [health] that would have been investigated sooner."

The doctor does not want to be identified because she is now a public servant in another state.

The ABC understands the Health Department removed the doctor from her position at Wadeye for accessing Cumaiyi's medical records and she is now taking Fair Work Australia action against the Department over that decision.

Patrick Cumaiyi's aunt, Stephanie Berida, says several members of her family saw Cumaiyi ejected from the police plane. ( ABC News: Jane Bardon )

Jumped from police vehicle

But the Territory Police have said Cumaiyi's head was not injured until the next day on 10 November 2019 — when he jumped from a police car cage as officers attempted to drive him to Darwin.

He was taken back to the Wadeye clinic and staff on duty that day recorded he had "trauma to left ear … superficial abrasions to left skull, left elbow and both knees … no signs of bony injury … unable to rotate head to left, indicates pain over trapezius … left ear bulging with blood behind and leaking into external canal".

After the car incident, Cumaiyi was flown to Royal Darwin Hospital where he was found to have "a fracture through the left petrous temporal bone, extending into the superior margin of the external auditory canal".

But the former Wadeye doctor is convinced the fracture happened in the plane altercation, rather than in the car incident.

"When he was seen [after the car incident], the case notes suggest that all the injuries he had were in the same places that he had injuries the evening beforehand," she said.

"The swelling over the left temporal area was noted the previous evening, and that was where the skull fracture was identified later.

"I think that his injuries occurred at the time of the initial attempt to transport him to Darwin, based on what's written in his case notes."

Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt has lodged the Human Rights Commission complaint on behalf of Patrick Cumaiyi. ( ABC News: Jane Bardon )

Complaint lodged with Human Rights Commission

The doctor's conclusions have formed some of the basis of the complaint lodged at the Australian Human Rights Commission by Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt, who is now representing Cumaiyi.

Mr Levitt said the complaint is seeking compensation for "systematic racial discrimination in contravention of the Racial Discrimination Act … in the provision of health services and access to legal rights and to the equal protection of the law".

"The standard of care that Patrick received at Wadeye must be open to very serious question," Mr Levitt said.

"I would be astounded if he wasn't subjected to heightened medical risk and that his recovery wasn't severely jeopardised by the conduct of the police and the health service.

"The way it seemed he was treated by the police at all stages is highly controversial."

Mr Levitt has also based the complaint on what members of Cumaiyi's family have said they saw while watching the police plane stop on the airstrip on November 9, 2016.

Cumaiyi's aunt, Stephanie Berida, said: "They opened the door and we saw the body of Patrick being pushed down the ground. All the family was there and we all saw it, and it was really sad and we all cried.

Mr Levitt added: "We're also looking at the provision of health services and legal rights to the broader Wadeye community. It warrants a root and branch investigation."

The Territory Police carried out an internal investigation after Cumaiyi's family complained in 2016. ( ABC News: Jane Bardon )

'Injuries result of offender's actions'

The Northern Territory Health Department has said it is confident Cumaiyi's treatment by the Wadeye clinic was appropriate and has rejected the doctor's opinion.

"The former staff doctor was not involved in treating the patient during this incident or subsequently," the department said.

"NT Health is confident the management by the Wadeye Primary Health Care team was appropriate on both the 9 and 10 November 2016."

The department said it had "not received a complaint from the Human Rights Commission; if one is received we will respond accordingly".

The Territory Police carried out an internal investigation after Cumaiyi's family complained in 2016, but said the complaint was declined in consultation with the Ombudsman's office.

Responding to the former Wadeye doctor's opinion that Cumaiyi received the fracture in the plane incident, Acting Assistant NT Police Commissioner Daniel Bacon told the ABC: "It was deemed that the offender received injuries as a result of his own actions and that police acted in accordance with their duty."

"The offender was assessed and treated at the local health clinic for those injuries sustained before being deemed by the clinic as fit for custody," he said.

The Territory Ombudsman's office said it was asked to investigate Cumaiyi's case but did not because it received "an approach by a third party about the incidents," and not from "the individual concerned".

"The third party was advised that we would accept a complaint from the individual concerned if they wanted to make one," the office said.