Inquest families furious after letter from Coroner Mark Johns reveals his plea for funding remains unanswered five months on
THREE major Coroner’s inquests have stalled, including one into a high-profile murder, and a fourth is at risk of not progressing due to chronic underfunding of the key office.
THREE major Coroner’s inquests have stalled, including one into a high-profile murder, and a fourth is at risk of not progressing due to chronic underfunding of the key office.
A letter from Coroner Mark Johns, released to The Advertiser, reveals a plea was made to Attorney-General John Rau five months ago for more money but still has not been met.
It comes as the Government faces calls to re-examine several sudden deaths at the Oakden mental health facility after new suspicion was cast by Chief Psychiatrist Aaron Groves’s report.
The stalled coronial inquests include the three-year-old murder of Graziella Dallier, who was killed by former partner Dion Muir amid claims the system failed to keep him behind bars.
Mr Johns also was blindsided by Premier Jay Weatherill this month saying he wanted an inquiry into a worker’s death at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, which also does not have funding to begin.
Ms Dallier’s frustrated daughter Natasha Palmer on Wednesday said the delay was “crazy” and she had been waiting by the phone for months, expecting confirmation that an inquest would proceed.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me why they wouldn’t want to get to the bottom of it,” she said.
“Sometimes I wonder if the Government is not really that willing to help out the courts and do all of that because of what is going to come out from it. They stuffed up way too many times.
“When mum died, it was one woman that dies every week from domestic violence. Six months later, it was two.
What’s it going to be in another three years’ time? Nothing is getting better.”
The family said police were called on numerous occasions about Muir’s behaviour, including breaching an intervention order and domestic violence, but Ms Dallier still was left vulnerable.
Mr Johns said he also was required to probe two deaths in custody — the shooting of Alexander Peter Kuskoff by a STAR operative and Wayne Fella Morrison’s passing after an “incident” at Yatala Labour Prison — but he could not do so until money was released to employ senior counsel.
By law, the Government must make an official response to inquests about deaths in custody.
The Coroner’s letter was sent to the Opposition after it sought an update from Mr Johns on funding levels.
In the letter, Mr Johns states he had no notice of Mr Weatherill’s announcement to a union rally this month of an inquest into the 2014 death of Jorge Castillo-Riffo at the new RAH.
Mr Johns is still considering whether to undertake that inquiry, and has received no order from the Government forcing him to.
He says an inquest will be complex and require more resources.
“The fact of the matter is that I have never sought additional resources before November 2015,” he writes.
“I had then been the State Coroner for 10 years.
“During that time the court had conducted some very significant inquests within its own resources.
“For example, the inquest into Chloe Valentine was long and complex. No special assistance was sought.”
Mr Johns details two recent approaches to ministers aimed at achieving extra funding.
One was made to Attorney-General John Rau by Chief Justice Chris Kourakis on November 23, 2016.
The second was made directly to Mr Weatherill, by Mr Johns in writing, following the union speech about the Castillo-Riffo case on the steps of State Parliament on April 11, 2017.
Mr Johns’s letter to the Opposition is dated last Friday. He states: “I have not had any indication from the Attorney-General or anyone else that the requested funding will be provided.”
“At this date, none of these three inquests can proceed,” Mr Johns writes.
Mr Johns declined an offer for interview yesterday to expand on his written statements.
The Opposition is warning that the Coroner’s office has become critically low on resources and could be hampered from fully probing a decade of cover-up at the Oakden facility.
Mr Johns this month reopened investigations into the 2008 murder of an Oakden patient.
A fellow resident was charged at the time, but died before trial, and the case was set aside.
Opposition Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman said Mr Johns’s letter exposed a “scandalous” lack of support for a key watchdog agency, and there was huge public interest in each case.
“On the issues of a death in custody, for example, that is just scandalous,” she said.
“The Government, by statutory requirement, has to table a response to a death in custody.
“The Graziella Dallier case is all about the police and alleged failure to act.
“These are three of the most significant cases which may reflect on a Government service.
“Corrections and police are high on that list because they have the most power.”
A Government spokeswoman said it would “consider specific requests for funding as part of the Budget process” and it was awaiting application from the Courts Administration Authority.
SA Law Society president Tony Rossi said the Government was consistently doing “justice on the cheap” and lengthy delays in starting an inquest could result in poorer findings.
“If the Coroner is to get to the bottom of what has happened, he’s got to have witnesses who can remember what happened,” Mr Rossi said.
“You can have an effective coronial inquiry three, four or five years after the event, but is it going to be as good as one just after the event?
“By definition, no. It is classic of this Government that, if there is enough noise, it will act.
“It’s politically driven, rather than on the merits.”