Why key witnesses don’t want to testify at St Basil’s inquest
The former operators of a facility that suffered Australia’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreak have objected to giving evidence at an inquest.
Former St Basil’s managers want to be excused from testifying at an inquest into the aged care home’s deadly Covid outbreak, with their lawyer saying it’s “not a dress rehearsal” for future criminal cases against them.
St Basil’s Homes for the Aged former facility manager Vicky Kos and ex-chairman Konstantin Kontis appeared before an inquest on Wednesday, requesting they be excused from giving evidence on the grounds it may incriminate them.
The facility in Melbourne’s north suffered the worst outbreak that swept through Victoria’s nursing homes last year, with 50 residents dying in July and August during the virus’s second wave caused by hotel quarantine breaches. It remains Australia’s deadliest Covid outbreak.
Mr Kontis and Mr Kos also rejected Coroner John Cain’s offer of an immunity certificate if they testified.
“The interests of justice require you to give evidence. We will now have that debate,” Mr Cain said.
Lawyer Ian Hill QC, representing Ms Kos and Mr Kontis, argued his clients should be excused from giving evidence given a WorkSafe probe of St Basil’s is already under way into suspected breaches of work health and safety laws.
Mr Hill said the threat of prejudice to his clients was “real and apparent” and an immunity certificate would not fully protect them.
Further, the inquest was not a “dress rehearsal” for any future criminal or civil prosecutions against them, he said.
“We’re not going to stand here and formulate charges against our two clients for the benefit of WorkSafe,” he told the coroner.
“But it’s a real, not fanciful risk, Your Honour.
“Forcing them to give evidence at this point of time is not in the interests of justice.”
Lawyers for the victims’ families opposed Ms Kos and Mr Kontis’s application.
Shifa Shaikh, representing 61 family members, said they were desperate for answers.
Alan Hands, also acting for victims’ families, said the coroner must factor in the public interest in “finding out why 50 elderly Greek men and women died at St Basil’s”.
“There is a gaping hole at the centre of this coronal inquiry in relation to what happened at St Basil’s leading up to and beyond the 22nd and the people who can fill in those gaps are Ms Kos and Mr Kontis,” he said.
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton stood down staff at the home on July 22 last year after deeming them close contacts.
As a result, the workers were replaced by a commonwealth health department workforce, but the commonwealth had great difficulty finding suitable and experienced care staff, which had devastating consequences on residents’ welfare, the inquest was told.
Multiple witnesses testified there were infection breaches and poor communication from St Basil’s management after the first positive Covid case emerged at the aged care home during Melbourne’s second wave.
“If everyone had been told about the first positive Covid test when the managers knew, and staff did not also work in other areas of St Basil’s, then I think we could have had less infection at St Basil’s,” llija Avramovski, a personal care assistant working at St Basil’s dementia unit, told the inquest last month.
The Coroner said he would need time to consider Ms Kos and Mr Kontis’s application, saying his decision was unlikely before Christmas.
The inquest resumes on Thursday, with victims’ family members to address the hearing.
More than three-quarters of the Covid-19-related deaths in Victoria last year were of residents within residential aged care homes.
