A police officer supervising Aboriginal woman Tanya Day while in custody has agreed a check on her just seconds before she fell and hit her head was "completely inadequate".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Day hit her head five times in a Victorian police station but it was hours before officers went inside her cell to check on her.
The 55-year-old Yorta Yorta grandmother was arrested and placed in a cell after being drunk on a regional train on December 5, 2017. She died 17 days later from a brain injury.
At an inquest into her death on Tuesday, custody supervisor Sergeant Edwina Neale was shown CCTV footage of Ms Day stumbling in the cell before repeatedly falling between 4.22pm and 4.45pm.
"She looks very drunk there but she's not a lot different to many other drunks," she told the inquest of Ms Day.
When asked if Ms Day was at risk of a fall, Sgt Neale responded: "All drunks are at risk of falling and cracking their head in a police cell."
Five minutes after the falls, footage showed leading senior constables Danny Wolters and Wayne Cairnes checking on Ms Day through a cell window for just a few seconds before walking away.
Read more:
- Distressing footage played at inquest
- Tanya Day 'bargained' with police, inquest hears
- Aboriginal justice volunteer denies police claims
- Officer in Day case was Aboriginal liaison
- Grandmother teary, unsteady in police cell, footage shows
- No ambulance called for Tanya Day
- Train conductor says race played no part in police call decision
- Tanya Day taken off train 'for her safety'
Sen Const Cairnes earlier told the inquest the officers did not enter the cell to give Ms Day "privacy and dignity".
It's unclear if Ms Day verbally responded to the men, as required by police guidelines.
"That's a completely inadequate check, what you've witnessed there?" Peter Morrissey SC, the lawyer representing the Day family, asked the sergeant.
"It looks it, yes," Sgt Neale said.
Thirty seconds later, Ms Day is shown falling head-first against the cell wall and bench. An autopsy established this fall caused her fatal haemorrhage.
"If you had seen that fall, you would've raced straight in there, wouldn't you?" Mr Morrissey asked.
"Yes," Sgt Neale replied.
Sgt Neale said she tasked Snr Const Wolters with checking on Ms Day every 20 minutes, either in person or on CCTV.
But he later told her said Ms Day would "get up and become agitated" when he did a physical check and suggested they be pushed out to 40 minutes. Sgt Neale agreed.
Nobody entered Ms Day's cell between 3.57pm and 8pm.
When asked if the decision to push out checks to 40 minutes was criminally negligent, Sgt Neale said she disagreed.
"In fact, at that point she was bleeding to death, wasn't she?" Mr Morrissey asked.
"I don't know that," Sgt Neale replied.
The inquest continues, with Coroner Caitlin English examining whether racism contributed to Ms Day's death.
Australian Associated Press
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.
