An Aboriginal woman who died after hitting her head in a Victorian police cell will be given a "voice" if confronting footage of her time in custody is made public, her family says.
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CCTV captures Tanya Day falling five times in the Castlemaine cell within a two-and-a-half-hour period, after she was arrested for being drunk on a train on December 5, 2017.
The Day family's lawyer, Emrys Nekvapil, has again called for the footage to be made public, describing it as the Yorta Yorta grandmother's "voice" in the inquest.
"It's her opportunity to tell the truth about what happened in that cell and it's a voice which speaks both for her individual circumstances and the struggle of her community," Mr Nekvapil said on Thursday,.
"Tanya's family want this image shown because it shows what was perpetrated on Tanya - not her vulnerability which might be our response to it - but what occurred to her when she went from sleeping on the train to being taken into custody."
Coroner Caitlin English rejected the family's call for the CCTV's release when the inquest began, saying it was not fair to witnesses due to give evidence.
Ms English will make a fresh ruling on Friday, before the paramedics who went to the police station give evidence.
Ms Day, 55, died 17 days after her arrest from a brain haemorrhage caused by a fall in the cell.
Despite being instructed to physically check and rouse Ms Day every half-hour, watch-house keeper Leading Senior Constable Danny Wolters only checked on her from outside the cell every 40 minutes, and via CCTV every 20.
On Thursday, he was shown CCTV footage of a check he conducted at 5.35pm, during which he looks through a cell window for three seconds before walking away.
Ms Day is captured lying across the bench with her legs hanging over the side, her feet planted on the floor.
She appears to have lost movement in her right arm, likely caused by the catastrophic fall at 4.51pm.
"I found her to be in a very undignified position for a lady to be in," Sen Const Wolters said.
"I have seen a lot of males in that position in our cells, a lot of males, and I found it a little bit confronting and I spoke to her, I got a verbal response from her, and I left her to her own privacy and dignity."
Day family barrister Peter Morrissey SC said: "You found it embarrassing and confronting to deal with an indigenous woman?"
The officer replied: "No."
No officers entered the cell until 8.03pm, when they noticed a bruise on Ms Day's forehead and called an ambulance.
In his triple-zero call, Sen Const Wolters said he'd seen Ms Day slip from a seated position about 7pm.
In statements, paramedics said the officer told them Ms Day got up afterwards, was "moving around normally" and he went through CCTV footage and determined she only fell once.
Sen Const Wolters denied the account, saying he did not see Ms Day fall but inferred, from seeing her on the bed one moment and on the floor the next, that she had.
Australian Associated Press