A SECOND directions hearing in the coronial inquest into a Yorta Yorta grandmother's death in police custody in Castlemaine will occur on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tanya Day, 55, died in December 2017 after sustaining a head injury in a cell at Castlemaine police station, where she was held after being arrested for public drunkenness.
The grandmother had boarded a bus in Echuca before getting on a train in Bendigo, headed to Melbourne to see her daughter on December 5.
CCTV footage shows her "slightly unsteady on her feet" at the station and, while on the train, she was unable to produce a valid ticket.
The inspector reported she became "unruly" and police were called to take a "drunk person from the train" when it stopped at Castlemaine.
Police took her into custody for four hours to "sober up".
Her family was under the impression she would be left in the cell until she sobered up and police would put her back on the train to Melbourne.
Instead, Ms Day hit her head five times and even rolled off the bench in custody. She also suffered a "dark-shaped oval bruise".
In December last year, counsel assisting the coroner, Catherine Fitzgerald, said it was likely Ms Day suffered a traumatic head injury in custody that resulted in a brain haemorrhage causing death.
Ms Day's death led to state coroner Caitlin English to call for crime of public drunkenness to be scrapped.
Ms Day's family has launched a petition that calls on the state government to abolish public drunkenness as an offence.
Ms Day's family member Harrison Day also died after being in police custody for public drunkenness, with his case heard at the 1991 commission.
An inquest is due in mid-July.
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.