Updated
Western Australia’s corruption watchdog has condemned the “oppressive and unjust” treatment of a woman whose hip was dislocated after a struggle with police and was then dragged up nine steps at the Fremantle police station.
Key points:
- The woman was arrested after her daughter was stopped for a breath test
- Despite her injuries she had to wait hours for treatment
- The CCC found officers mostly ignored her screams and requests for help
The Corruption and Crime Commission report said the woman dubbed “Ms Duncan” was detained for more than five hours, only because she could not stand to be fingerprinted.
The report found “many failings, by many officers” on New Year’s Eve 2017-18 when Ms Duncan was arrested after her daughter was stopped for a random breath test.
The incident occurred just two weeks after the WA coroner criticised the “inhumane” treatment by police of Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu, who died in police custody at South Hedland.
The report said that as a result of the Ms Dhu inquest, police should have had a “heightened awareness” of their responsibilities in caring for people suspected of having medical problems.
CCTV shows woman’s ordeal
In CCTV footage of the incident released by the CCC, Ms Duncan could be heard screaming and crying in pain as the officers dragged her backwards up a set of stairs inside the Fremantle Police Station and into a cell.
Although her face is pixelated in the footage, the report said the original vision showed Ms Duncan’s face “clearly contorted with pain as her leg hits each step”.
After she was left moaning in a cell, a female officer asked her what she was doing. Ms Duncan responded, “I’m in f***ing pain”, to which the officer responded, “Stop putting weight on your leg then”.
That officer, identified in the report as PAO Lewis, denied Ms Duncan’s repeated requests for water and instead the report said she taunted her, describing the officer’s actions as “significant unprofessional behaviour”.
‘A cascading failure of duty’
The report found all the officers at the station mostly ignored Ms Duncan’s requests for help despite constant complaints of pain over a five-and-a-half-hour period.
The report said the officers assumed she was faking her injuries, instead treating her agonised protests “with indifference”.
It was not until a shift change at the police station that she was eventually taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital by ambulance for treatment.
“There were so many failures by many officers to afford Ms Duncan timely medical attention, that it is pointless for the Commission to form an opinion of misconduct in respect of any one individual,” the report found.
“Collectively, the actions on the night justify an opinion that the treatment of Ms Duncan was oppressive, unjust and contrary to law.”
It recommended urgent consideration be given to upgrading the Fremantle Police Station to include disabled access.
“What happened to Ms Duncan was a cascading failure of duty from the roadside beside the car, until the ambulance took her to hospital,” the CCC found.
“Together, the failure of duty amounts to serious misconduct in the form of reviewable police action.”
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