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A Northern Territory police officer may be pressured to reply a coroner’s questions in regards to the evening he shot an Indigenous teenager lifeless.
Constable Zachary Rolfe shot Kumanjayi Walker, 19, thrice throughout a bungled outback arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019.
An inquest into the Warlpiri man’s loss of life has been repeatedly disrupted by a authorized stoush about whether or not the 31-year-old officer has the authorized proper to refuse to supply proof to the coroner and the court docket’s capability to compel him to take action.
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage beforehand decided that witnesses can’t decline to reply questions by invoking the penalty privilege, which Const Rolfe did when he appeared on the inquest in November.
She stated penalty privilege was extinguished by the NT Coroner’s Act Part 38, which permits the coroner to compel a witness to provide proof that might incriminate them and for the supply of an immunity certificates from prosecution after doing so.
Const Rolfe’s authorized group disagreed and took the matter to the Supreme Court docket for judicial assessment final month.
It stated the certificates wouldn’t shield him from inner police disciplinary proceedings doubtlessly stemming from his proof, and Part 38 doesn’t abolish penalty privilege and it stays accessible to him as a typical regulation proper.
However Justice Judith Kelly disagreed. In a judgment launched on Thursday she stated “penalty privilege is just not accessible in a coronial inquest below the Act”.
The impact of the ruling is that Decide Armitage ought to now be capable to compel Const Rolfe to reply uncomfortable questions on racist textual content messages that the inquest was informed he despatched.
He’s additionally more likely to be requested in regards to the evening he killed Mr Walker and his alleged misuse of police body-worn cameras, extreme use of pressure and falsified NT police recruitment utility.
All informed, there are 14 classes of proof Const Rolfe may very well be pressured to reply questions on, together with 9 incidents associated to investigations over his use of pressure on the job.
A jury discovered him not responsible in March of murdering Mr Walker, inflicting outrage within the Indigenous man’s grieving neighborhood, together with hopes that the inquest would supply solutions the place the trial had failed.
The inquest continues on February 27.
– AAP
