Katrina Hawker inquest: Nurse’s death ’should be referred to police, prosecutors’
Counsel assisting Clancy Dane said ‘there was testimony given (on Friday) alone that would give the court the requisite belief’ that ‘an offence may have been committed’.
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The death of Palmerston nurse Katrina Hawker should be referred to police and prosecutors for investigation following an inquest into her 2020 death, a court has heard.
Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage wrapped up the inquiry on Friday after a week of evidence following the 43-year-old’s tragic death at the Bakewell home she shared with her partner, Peter Scammell.
In his closing submissions, counsel assisting the coroner Clancy Dane said the prospect that Ms Hawker took her own life by deliberately ingesting a fatal cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol appeared unlikely.
“There appears to have been issues in her relationship but she was working, she was excited about trips, she was studying, she had, when she died, papers open that she’d been highlighting, jigsaw puzzles that were half complete,” he said.
“She didn’t leave any note that would indicate that she took her own life, none of her actions that I could see or submit on, point towards a conclusion like that.”
Mr Dane said it also appeared unlikely that the medically-trained Royal Darwin Hospital nurse would have accidentally overdosed.
“We’re not talking about quantities of (drugs) or alcohol where you might think there was a freak accident or the person got unlucky,” he said.
Mr Dane said “if those two possibilities look unlikely” then “we also have to look at the alternatives”.
“And there only appears to be one other person who was with Ms Hawker on the day who might have been able to influence whether or not (the drug) was ingested by Ms Hawker,” he said.
Mr Dane said the inquest had explored the circumstances surrounding Ms Hawker’s death, including the fact only Mr Scammell’s fingerprints were found on a blister pack and bottle of vodka and the fact he had not rendered first aid.
He said under those circumstances “there was testimony given today alone that would give the court the requisite belief” that “an offence may have been committed”.
Earlier, Mr Dane had asked Mr Scammell, who was the only witness to testify on Friday, whether it was “possible you were in (the bedroom) mixing a drink with (the drug) and vodka”, to which he replied “no”.
“You don’t think about whether or not you might be responsible for Katrina’s death?” he asked.
“No, I don’t know, in a roundabout sort of way maybe,” Mr Scammell replied.
“Well there’s pills missing and you don’t seem to remember what happened, you don’t think about that?” Mr Dane asked.
“No,” he replied.
Ms Armitage will hand down her findings at a date to be fixed.
Peter Scammell tells court he’s not ‘100 per cent sure’ he didn’t drug partner
June 22: Peter Scammell has admitted under oath he can’t be “100 per cent” sure he didn’t drug Katrina Hawker by slipping her a toxic cocktail of alcohol and benzodiazepine in their Bakewell home in 2020.
Mr Scammell took the stand in the Darwin Local Court on Friday in a final explosive day of evidence at an inquest into the 43-year-old nurse’s death.
Counsel assisting the coroner Clancy Dane read to the court a series of chilling text messages Mr Scammell sent to a woman he’d “fooled around” with during his relationship with Ms Hawker in the lead up to her death.
In May 2017, he texted Rebecca Vick saying “the barking dog next door is driving me nuts”, to which she responded “shoot it” and he suggested “maybe poisoning with Ratsak”.
Ms Vick unsent her next message and Mr Scammell said he couldn’t remember what it said but his response read: “I like your way of thinking, does it apply to the missus too?”
Coroner Elisabeth Armitage suggested to Mr Scammell the message “sounds like you were somehow joking about perhaps shooting her in the street like a dog”.
“And then you went on to say ‘All good I’ve actually saved her life twice’,” she said.
“I don’t know about that thing about shooting in the street, dogs and stuff like that but I remember (saving her life),” he replied.
In January 2019, Mr Scammell again texted Ms Vick, saying “Should I smother her with a pillow? Please don’t answer that”.
When questioned about the message by Mr Dane, Mr Scammell said “I can’t explain that”.
“I don’t recall this conversation, it’s something I said, it looks bad,” he said.
“That’s not to be taken seriously in that context I don’t think, that’s not something I would do, it’s something I said, it’s not something I would ever actually do.”
A month later, Mr Scammell told Ms Vick “Kat has gone mental again” but “I’m a nice bloke, there will be no killing today”.
“I can see what it looks like and what it sounds like but I can’t explain it,” he told the court.
Mr Dane also played a police interview with Mr Scammell’s friend Jeremy Wolhuter, in which he told them Mr Scammell had told him “he was going to kill her” in the hours before Ms Hawker’s death.
“I took it as a bit of a joke and him being Peter, I actually thought he was too drunk to be capable of doing anything and so I dismissed it,” he said.
“I wish I hadn’t.”
Mr Wolhuter said he had not mentioned the phone call to investigators earlier “because I couldn’t believe that he’d actually done it, or that he was capable of doing it”.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t say it before,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is he said he was going to do it and then she died.”
Mr Scammell told the court he had no memory of speaking with Mr Wolhuter but accepted phone records confirmed the call took place.
“I don’t recall the conversation and I don’t think that’s something I would have said,” he said.
Mr Dane took Mr Scammell through the evidence collected from his home, noting he’d told police on the night of Ms Hawker’s death he thought she’d overdosed on temazepam and vodka, which was “pretty spot on”.
He said Mr Scammell also later told police he’d never taken any of the pills but had taken the packet out of the box to look at it and only his fingerprints were found on it.
“Could you have … caused Katrina to ingest temazepam on 12 September, 2020?” he asked.
“I don’t, I’ve got, no, it’s not a thing, it’s not something I would have done,” Mr Scammell replied.
Mr Dane also showed him a photograph of a bottle of Grey Goose vodka on his nightstand which also only had his fingerprints on it.
“What’s your response to that?” he asked.
“Even the Grey Goose? I don’t buy Grey Goose so, I mean if it’s there I’ll drink it.”
“If we put it all together,” Mr Dane asked, “even if you don’t actually remember what happened that day, do you think it’s possible that you did something that caused Katrina to ingest that temazepam?”
“I cannot remember anything from that day and I can see where your saying it’s possible because you’re putting all the pieces together, but I just can’t see myself doing that,” Mr Scammell replied.
Ms Armitage interjected: “It might have happened, is that what you’re saying?”
“No, well I can’t 100 per cent say it didn’t happen or it did happen, I’m just saying I can’t remember what happened,” Mr Scammell said.
“So it might have happened?” Ms Armitage asked.
“I’m not going to say that,” Mr Scammell replied.
Man who accused friend of murder ‘lost track of reality’: Court
June 21: Peter Scammell’s “best friend” still holds him responsible for the death of his partner Katrina Hawker despite admitting to making up a confession about him poisoning her with sleeping pills.
Giving evidence at a coronial inquest into Ms Hawker’s 2020 death on Thursday, Doug Henson told the court Mr Scammell told him “the police confiscated a bottle of vodka, a glass of vodka and his tablets and (took) them all back for testing”.
“His tablets were some sort of sleeping tablet or something that had been prescribed to him because he was going through a bit of a manic state at work apparently and drinking every day and drinking on the job et cetera,” he said.
“Specifically he said the words which just played over and over in my mind; he said ‘If I wanted to kill Katrina I would have had to grind the tablets up in a drink, she never would have taken them any other way’.
“It just came out of left field, out of nowhere and it just sort of really stuck with me.”
But Mr Henson said multiple conversations he had with various other people after Ms Hawker’s death in which he claimed Mr Scammell had confessed to her murder were lies.
Mr Henson said a combination of alcoholism and mental health issues, including what he understood to be a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, meant he could “lose track of what is real and what isn’t real”.
“Did Peter ring you inebriated and suggest that he may have added pills into Kat’s vodka?” counsel assisting the coroner Clancy Dane asked.
“No, he did not,” Mr Henson replied.
“Why would you say that if that didn’t happen?”
“I don’t know,” Mr Henson said.
“I was basically looking for answers and if necessary, trying to force answers, Katrina was dead, I came away with my little conjecture of what happened and sometimes these things just sort of manifest in my brain, particularly if I’ve had a few drinks.”
Mr Henson said while “Peter’s never admitted doing anything wrong to me”, that “doesn’t change that I blamed him for it, that I had high level suspicions that he was involved”.
“I wish he did say something because then it would make sense and life would be a lot easier but he never actually said anything to me,” he said.
“The only single thing he said was what we’ve already covered and the rest of it was just trying to find closure and trying to understand and having suspicions and just putting things together in my head.”
Mr Henson also denied “trying to protect Peter from comments that he had made to you when he was drunk”.
“To this day I believe Peter is responsible however, he just, he didn’t physically do it, he did it in other ways, so I would not be protecting him,” he said.
“I lied to pretty much everyone except the police because I didn’t actually want to interfere with their investigation, I really wanted them to find the evidence required for Peter to be convicted of Katrina’s death.
“So yes, I very poorly behaved and misled and lied to people but the intent was not to save Peter from prosecution, it was to try to point the investigation to where I believed they would find their evidence, but not because of a confession from Peter, unfortunately.”
No charges have been laid in relation to Ms Hawker’s death.
The inquest continues.
Dead nurse’s partner’s friend ‘lied to police’ about confession: Court
June 20, 7pm: The long-term partner of a woman who died after ingesting a cocktail of alcohol and Temazepam told a friend “she was going to leave him but he would kill her first”, a court has heard.
The Darwin coroner’s court heard Doug Henson was Peter Scammell’s best friend when Katrina Hawker died beside the couple’s pool in Bakewell in September 2020.
On Thursday, Mr Henson’s ex-partner, who asked not to be identified by media, told Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage he messaged her several months later saying he’d “had a falling out” with Mr Scammell in Darwin.
“The day before Kat died, Peter told Wombat (Jeremy Wolhuter) that she was going to leave him but he would kill her first,” he wrote.
“While drunk, Peter told me that Kat was freaking out so he gave her some of his meds that he was prescribed but she wouldn’t take them (she was a nurse) so he gave them to her without her knowing.
“Peter is an alcoholic, he has no recollection of the time from Kat falling asleep by the pool to almost five hours later when he found her dead.
“He has photos on his phone of her in various states during that time, so I called him out on it and asked him if he killed her, which is not a good way to make friends.”
The woman said she was “shocked that Peter would admit to something like that” but Mr Henson had previously said “he didn’t know anything” so she was “confused on how to take it really”.
After telling police about the message in June 2021, the woman said she spoke to Mr Henson on the phone and he told her he had also spoken to police but “he’d lied to them” and “didn’t tell them that Peter had admitted anything”.
“My recollection of the whole thing is a bit hazy because yeah, I will admit that I had been drinking but we ended up getting into a big argument about it all,” she said.
“He was saying to me that he had told the police that he didn’t know anything at all and that the police have no proof that he does know anything.”
The woman said Mr Henson told her “the police have nothing against me, they had no evidence that he had lied”.
“He pretty much just said for all the police know he could have been lying to me when he sent those text messages,” she said.
“He thought it was all quite funny that I had talked to the police and that I had shown them the text messages.
“He thought it was just funny that there was no evidence there to say that he was being truthful with me at all so then he couldn’t really get in trouble for lying to the police.
“I asked him, I said ‘Is it true, is that what Peter told you?’ and at some points he said ‘yes’, at other points he said ‘you’ll never know, I could have been lying’.”
But the woman also said Mr Henson “does lie quite a lot” and “can be quite deceptive”.
“He does hold a lot back and I think he does tend to be quite manipulative in that way, where he either doesn’t tell the truth or he bends the truth to suit himself,” she said.
The inquest continues on Friday.
Nurse’s partner started intimate relationship days after her death: Court
June 20: A man who found his long term partner unresponsive in their Bakewell garden in 2020 started an intimate relationship with another woman in the days after her death, a court has heard.
Darwin vet Sarah Vanderstelt gave evidence on Thursday at an ongoing inquest into the death of 43-year-old Katrina Hawker at the home she shared with Peter Scammell on September 12.
Ms Vanderstelt told coroner Elisabeth Armitage she had known Mr Scammell since high school but they moved in different circles and had only had one significant interaction.
She said they were both part of a group of school leavers who attended a concert at the Ski Club in 1998 where she fainted and “Pete was nominated” to look after her.
“He sat with me next to the toilet block at the Ski Club, telling me how Grinspoon was his favourite band and he missed the concert to sit and look after me and I just thought that was a very kind thing of him,” she said.
Ms Vanderstelt said that was the last time she saw Mr Scammell before the pair reconnected over Facebook in 2007 but had limited online interactions until immediately after Ms Hawker’s death.
“Peter put up a post that I saw and it was a bunch of flowers and it said something like ‘Thanks to everyone at ward 4B’,” she said.
“I interpreted it as that he was in hospital and he was thanking the staff that were looking after him so I sent him a message.”
Ms Vanderstelt said after she realised the truth, it became clear Mr Scammell “needed to talk about it” and they “spoke on the phone that night and he told me all about his partner of 17 years – he’d found her dead in the garden”.
“So I said if you want to catch up and have a chat we could do that,” she said.
“I wasn’t expecting what ended up happening but he obviously needed to talk, and my last memory of him was him looking after me so I thought if he wanted someone to talk to I could do that.”
Ms Vanderstelt said she visited Mr Scammell at home a few days later where the pair became intimate after “a lot of drinks” and discussion.
“He talked mostly about his side of what had happened, how he’d felt, how it had felt finding her, having the ambulance people there,” she said.
“Having the police arrive, fingerprinting his house and not being allowed back in his house and he was sort of pointing out the fingerprint dust that was still there.”
When asked by counsel assisting Clancy Dane if Mr Scammell had explained “why he was able or willing to move on so quickly”, Ms Vanderstelt said she was “in a very bad place myself” and “it just sort of seemed like we’re two lonely people who connected”.
“I just took it that he was grieving and just looking for any sort of physical comfort, I know it looks bad, I didn’t see it as him being disrespectful,” she said.
She said Mr Scammell was “a complete mess” and “drinking very heavily” in the days that followed, getting so drunk “he could barely stand” and having frequent blackouts.
“I thought that was a response to her death, that that was his coping mechanism but I’ve since come to believe that he actually was already a very heavy drinker,” she said.
Ms Vanderstelt said a few months later, Mr Scammell’s friend Doug Henson texted him saying “something along the lines of I just need to ask you this, did you give Katrina sleeping pills or put them in her drink to settle her down”.
“Doug told me that he didn’t want to believe that Peter had given Katrina sleeping pills but he was just trying to prepare him for when police asked him about it so that Peter could get his story straight,” she said.
But Ms Vanderstelt said she didn’t think Mr Henson “was sending strategic messages to Peter to protect him”.
“My thoughts were more that Doug was creating problems, creating something that didn’t happen,” she said.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Clancy Dane, finally asked “one question from Ms Hawker’s family: Was Peter ever physically violent towards you?”
“When he’d get drunk he’d get sometimes very grabby, like not hitting me or anything like that but sort of grabbing me and hauling me around,” Ms Vanderstelt said.
“Is that in a manner that you found objectionable, do you mean?” Mr Dane asked.
“Yeah, sometimes,” she replied.
The inquest continues.
‘Pills in the vodka’: RDH nurse death inquest told of drunk admission
June 19: Two friends of a Palmerston man whose partner ostensibly overdosed got to talking one day and discovered their buddy had made concerning statements to both of them, either the day of or in the months after her death, a coronial inquest has heard.
Bakewell woman Katrina Hawker, 43, died on the afternoon of September 12, 2020, ostensibly via an accidental overdose of alcohol and benzodiazepine, while lying on a towel in her backyard.
An inquest examining the circumstances surrounding her death continued on Wednesday, hearing from two close friends of Ms Hawker’s long-term partner, Peter Scammell.
Jeremy Wolhuter received an eight-minute phone call from Mr Scammell at 12.59pm on the day of Ms Hawker’s death.
Mr Wolhuter said he had been steering clear of his close friend for the past 12–18 months due to his spiralling alcoholism – Mr Scammell was sometimes consuming up to a 1.25L bottle of straight vodka daily.
What he was told during that eight-minute call stuck with him, but it wasn’t until a year later that Mr Wolhuter contacted police to say there was a key piece of information he omitted from his statement.
The video record of interview with Detective Sergeant David Munro, the officer in charge of the investigation, was played to the inquest.
“He said that he wanted to kill her, was going to kill her,” Mr Wolhuter told Sergeant Munro.
“I thought he was kidding. He was very, very drunk. I took it as a bit of a joke.
“He said that he was going to do it, and then she died.”
Within three months of Ms Hawker’s death, he was catching up with a mutual friend of Mr Scammell’s, Douglas Henson, when the two got to talking about the nurse’s death.
“When I told him what Pete had said on phone, he hinted at Pete telling him some stuff,” Mr Wolhuter said.
That ‘stuff’ was that Mr Scammell had put “pills in the vodka”.
Mr Wolhuter said that although Mr Henson loved a good yarn, he did not believe him to be lying about this.
The inquest previously heard that Mr Henson emailed a number of people connected to the case, telling them Mr Scammell had admitted to involvement in his partner’s death, but recanted the claim when contacted by police.
Mr Wolhuter told the inquest Mr Scammell had been prescribed sleeping tablets for his insomnia and an injured knee, but that he didn’t like taking them.
Another of Mr Scammell’s friends, Rebecca Vick, told the inquest her friend was frequently unfaithful towards Ms Hawker and that he admitted at times to “accidentally” assaulting her, such as when on March 19, 2019, he messaged Ms Vick to say he’d given Ms Hawker an “accidental backlist”.
There was the “biggest pool of blood” Mr Scammell had seen, he wrote to Ms Vick.
“All good, we’re still best mates,” he wrote.
Ms Vick said she was aware that Mr Scammell had been prescribed diazepine in about April 2020 to help him sleep.
Mr Scammell slept at Ms Vick’s the night Ms Hawker died.
She told the inquest that the following morning, Mr Scammell told her that his partner had “mentioned suicide in the past”.
Ms Vick said this was the first time Mr Scammell had mentioned that his partner was suicidal, and that she didn’t believe Ms Hawker had died in that manner.
Odd behaviour of late RDH nurse’s partner stuck with ambos: Inquest
June 18: Paramedics who attempted to revive a Royal Darwin Hospital nurse who had turned blue after consuming a lethal mix of alcohol and benzodiazepine were struck by her partner’s odd behaviour, an inquest into the woman’s death has heard.
Bakewell woman Katrina Hawker, 43, died on the afternoon of September 12, 2020, ostensibly via an accidental overdose while lying on a towel in her backyard.
A coronial inquest that commenced in the Darwin Local Court on Monday was previously told by counsel assisting the inquest, Clancy Dane, that Ms Hawker’s partner, Peter Scammell, called a friend, Jeremy Wolhuter, earlier that day to say the relationship was terminal and he wanted to kill her.
A separate friend, Douglas Henson, subsequently emailed several people connected to the couple, telling them Mr Scammell had confessed to involvement in his partner’s death, but Mr Henson recanted those claims when contacted by police, Mr Dane said.
Mr Scammell has not been charged with any criminal offending.
On Tuesday, two St John Ambulance NT paramedics told the inquest they were both struck by Mr Scammell’s behaviour after they informed him Ms Hawker could not be saved.
Zebedee Schulz, reviewing his contemporaneous notes, told the court that when Mr Scammell was told the news, all he said was, “Is she dead? Do you think she is dead?”
Mr Schulz said that when he tried to gain more information from Mr Scammell – who failed to mention he was Ms Hawker’s partner – the man was evasive.
“The answers we were given didn’t match what we were looking at,” Mr Schulz said.
For instance, Ms Hawker’s lips and extremities were blue, she was colder than paramedics expected, and she had mottled skin – indicative of a loss of circulation – but Mr Scammell said he “went inside for 10 minutes, came out and found her like this”.
“There were no clear answers given. We knew why we were there, but we didn’t have any history leading up to that event,” Mr Schulz said.
Mr Schulz’s colleague Mark Ferguson also told the court there was little emotion when paramedics told Mr Scammell his partner had died.
“All I got from him was, ‘So she is dead’,” Mr Ferguson said.
Both paramedics noted that Ms Hawker was wet as if she had been swimming.
A neighbour of the couple said there was “always arguing going on between the two parties”.
“There were times where it felt like he was tormenting her,” the neighbour said.
“He was constantly being annoying.
“I think he was at times drunk, she would always say to leave her alone because he was drunk and she just wanted to have distance between them.”
The inquest continues on Wednesday.
Family friend said RDH nurse was killed, then backtracked: Inquest
Monday: An inquest examining the death of a Darwin nurse, ostensibly by accidental overdose, has heard that a family friend, who subsequently recanted when interviewed by police, told multiple people the nurse’s partner confessed to killing her.
Bakewell nurse Katrina Hawker, 43, died on the afternoon of September 12, 2020, at the residence she shared with her partner of almost two decades, Peter Scammell, who has not been charged with any criminal offences.
A coronial inquest examining the Royal Darwin Hospital nurse’s death began in Darwin Local Court on Monday.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Clancy Dane, said Ms Hawker’s day started in earnest at 11am, when she and Mr Scammell attended the Howard Springs Tavern for some drinks and a game of pool.
They then went to Bunnings, where there was an argument, and, after returning home, Ms Hawker then went to the shops to purchase chicken.
Mr Dane said that after Ms Hawker left, Mr Scammell called a friend, Jeremy Wolhuter, who would attest that his friend was “intoxicated”.
Mr Scammell is said to have told Mr Wolhuter he wanted to kill Ms Hawker, comments of a nature the friend had never heard him say before, Mr Dane said.
At 4.25pm that afternoon, Ms Hawker’s mobile phone recorded her walking 10 steps.
“It appears these were the last steps Ms Hawker ever took,” Mr Dane said.
He told the inquest that Mr Scammell took two images at 4.33pm and 4.40pm of Ms Hawker lying on a towel sunbathing in the backyard.
She had moved her arm slightly in between the photos.
At 6.33pm, a neighbour called triple-0. Mr Scammell had sought help after he discovered Ms Hawker’s lips were blue and she was unresponsive.
She could not be revived, the inquest heard.
Forensic pathologist Dr John Rutherford told the court her post-mortem revealed a blood-alcohol content of 0.24 per cent (nearly five times the legal driving limit) and 0.67 millilitres per litre of blood of Temazepam (a benzodiazepine).
“They were sufficient to account for death both together and on their own,” Dr Rutherford said.
In the wake of Ms Hawker’s death, a “close personal friend” of Mr Scammell, Douglas Henson, emailed a number of friends of the couple, including Mr Wolhuter, telling them Mr Scammell “had admitted he was responsible” for his partner’s death.
Mr Henson and Mr Wolhuter will both give evidence later in the inquest.
NT Police Detective Sergeant David Munro, who has been involved in the investigation since Ms Hawker’s death, told the inquest that Mr Henson also emailed an ex-partner, telling her he had evidence that could convict his friend “at minimum of involuntary manslaughter”.
“I do not believe he intentionally killed her,” Mr Henson wrote.
However, when Mr Henson was interviewed by police, he recanted, saying he was lying in the context of a border personality disorder diagnosis.
Sergeant Munro said officers could find no evidence of a formal diagnosis in Mr Henson’s medical records.
The police sergeant also gave evidence about the box of Temazepam discovered in Ms Hawker’s walk-in wardrobe.
He said it appeared as though Ms Hawker usually left the tab of medication packaging open after retrieving tablets from a blister pack, but the benzodiazepine box had its tab “stuffed untidily back into the box”.
A fingerprint of Mr Scammell’s was able to be retrieved from the medication packaging.
Mr Scammell received about $366,000 worth of Ms Hawker’s superannuation after her death, Sergeant Munro said.
The inquest continues on Tuesday.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelt Mr Wolhuter’s surname as Wolhuta.
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