Inquest into quadruple fatal Garbutt crash hears no recommendations will be made

An inquest into the death of four Townsville children in a stolen car has heard no recommendations to prevent a similar incident will be made ­– other than the continuation of the government’s current programs targeting youth crime.

Four teenagers were killed in a single-vehicle crash on the corner of Duckworth Street and Bayswater Road at Garbutt in Townsville on June 7, 2020. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)

• Day one: Cause of tragic crash revealed

An inquest into the death of four Townsville children in a stolen car has heard no recommendations to prevent a similar incident will be made ­– other than the continuation of the government’s current programs targeting youth crime.

Assistant Commissioner for Police and head of the Youth Justice Taskforce Cheryl Scanlon, Regional Director for the department of Children, Justice and Multicultural Affairs and leader of the Youth Justice portfolio, David Olsen, and Detective Inspector Jason Shepherd gave evidence on the final day of the inquest into the death of four teenagers in a stolen car crash in Garbutt.

Rayvenna Tyrone Coolwell, 15, Lucius Hure-Hill – now known as Barefoot, 13, Cayenne Muriel Robertson, 14, and Aaliyah Kiri Kowhi Te Paa, 17, were killed after they were thrown from the stolen Kia they were in during a crash on Duckworth St and Bayswater Rd on June 7, 2020.

The 14-year-old driver survived and was later sentenced to five years’ jail.

And while each official gave evidence about the raft of programs and initiatives involving multiple departmental agencies and police, the court heard the results of those programs would take decades to see.

Inquest into fatal Garbutt Accident. Assistant Police Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon at Townsville Court. Picture: Evan Morgan

Counsel Assisting Coroner Terry Ryan, Sarah Lio-Willie, said that despite the programs, “this is a tragedy that we are continuing to see”.

She said it was clear the problem was not just a legislative policy issue, but a community issue and as such, the “momentum of these initiatives” needed to be maintained.

“For those reasons, there are no submissions or recommendations that I can make in addition to what has already been done by the relevant government agencies …,” she said.

Assistant Commissioner Scanlon in evidence said there was no “silver bullet” to stopping young people from offending, but that most of the state’s offending came from a cohort of more than 300 juvenile offenders.

She said the upward trend in motor vehicle offending committed by young people was a “particularly challenging” area for police, and had been for years – but the issue itself was not a new one.

“ … Would I prefer to have no children in watchhouses or detention centres? Yes I would, but sadly that is not the reality,” she said.

She said while there was no “silver bullet” to fix the issue, much had been done in the past 18-20 months to “shift the system”, but it would take time to take effect.

“And while it doesn’t probably look like that to the community, where children continue to reoffend, and young people continue to do what they do – we can’t arrest our way out of this …,” she said.

Four children died after the stolen car they were in ploughed into a power pole along Duckworth St and Bayswater Rd. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR

Family of the teenagers — who were mostly unknown to police — said more needed to be done to address a lack of cultural sensitivity while delivering death notices to family and next of kin.

A range of recommendations were made to the Coroner in that vein, including frontline officers taking a “less rigid approach” and engaging with families, and questioning whether the family has any specific cultural needs.

Barefoot’s grandmother, Sanaa Liddle told the court she felt her grandson had been denied his “cultural right of passage from life to death”, because of a lack of understanding of culture by police.

“There were things I needed to do with his body that I did not get to do, I was let down and floored by a systems approach that is not fit for everyone,” Ms Liddle said.

A statement from the mother of Rayvenna Coolwell was also read to the court, sharing how devastating the loss of their beloved daughter had been and continued to be on their family.

“She (Rayvenna) had never been in trouble with police, she had a family who loved her …,” Ms Lio-Willie read.

Barrister for the Department of Children Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs submitted that the agencies must “continue the work”.

“It’s going to take time … and when we say time it’s not just a few years – we’re talking about decades …,”

“In summary, youth justice intensive case management is the key.”

Mr Olsen spoke about Youth Justice’s role in helping young people at risk of continued offending and detailed existing programs in place that supported children already known to the system.

Findings are expected to be handed down in the new year.

Originally published as Inquest into quadruple fatal Garbutt crash hears no recommendations will be made