Darwin prisoner consulted an ouija board and sold his ‘soul to the devil’ before he died in jail, inquest hears

An Aboriginal man consulted a home-made ouija board and told other inmates he sold his soul to the devil before dying in Holtze Prison in 2021, a court has heard.

John Lawrence said Bernard Hector was delisted as “at risk” before going on to tell other prisoners he was suicidal and eventually taking his own life.

“I’m going to kill myself when I go to jail … tell my mum.”

Six weeks after issuing the chilling warning to his lawyer in July 2021, 31-year-old Aboriginal man Bernard Hector was dead, having taken his own life while on remand in Darwin’s Holtze Prison.

On Tuesday, his family’s lawyer told an inquest in the Darwin Local Court, Mr Hector had spent his time behind bars consulting a home-made ouija board and claiming to have sold his soul to the devil.

“Some of (the other) prisoners made telling observations, prior to him (killing) himself, that he was becoming mentally disturbed, depressed and indeed suicidal,” John Lawrence SC said.

“Saying things to (his cousin/brother) like ‘I’ve sold my soul to the devil, the devil is already in me, I’m going to (kill) myself’.

“There’s no mental health input happening to Bernard during this period, there’s just Bernard in Sector 6, with other prisoners in his cell, shared, and then alone, dead at 31 years, five months.”

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage is examining the circumstances of Mr Hector’s death by suicide on August 30, 2021 after he spent the night locked unsupervised in his cell.

The court heard by the time prison officers found his body that morning he had likely been dead for hours and their attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Mr Lawrence said despite Mr Hector being placed “at risk” by a judge on the day he was remanded in custody in the Katherine Local Court, that status was lifted just two days later.

He said Mr Hector’s tragic death was a continuation of the “shameful catastrophe which is Indigenous incarceration”, identified by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody three decades ago.

“This was a catastrophe then (and) it’s a bigger catastrophe now,” he said.

“The catastrophe then was that 14 per cent of the Australian prison population was constituted by Indigenous men and women — 30 years later that 14 per cent is now 28 per cent, it’s doubled.”

The inquest is set to continue until the end of the week after a planned start in July last year was abandoned when the NT government bungled its response.

At the time, Mr Hector’s family said they would “continue fighting” for answers.

“The government didn’t give us more statements, that’s why the thing is delayed but we need to know more what really happened to him,” his aunty Amy Johnson said.

“When they get locked up, do they go around knocking on the door? Have they got cameras to watch people? I don’t know why he was there on his own.”

The Suicide Call Back service is on 1300 659 467.

Lifeline can be contacted on 13 11 14.