Mental health boss didn’t understand legislation relating to managing petrol sniffing cases, inquest hears

THE Top End Health Service has been accused of trying to keep information from coming out in a coronial inquest into the deaths of three Aboriginal children

Top End Health Service mental health general manager Richard Campion leaving the Darwin Local Court after the inquest.

• Inquest lays bare tragic petrol sniffing deaths of three children in remote NT communities
• Northern Territory Coroner told more could have been done to help “Mr Laurie” get clean from life long petrol sniffing habit before he died

THE Top End Health Service has been accused of trying to stop information from coming out in a coronial inquest into the deaths of three Aboriginal children after a long history of petrol sniffing.

Top End Health Service Mental Health general manager Richard Campion was questioned for the whole of the inquest’s second day about failures of the department in addressing the substance abuse and mental health problems of the three children – Ms B, 17, Master W, 12, and Master JK, 13 – before their deaths

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The families of the children asked that their full names not be used.

During questioning of Mr Campion, the inquest heard several details about measures taken to assist Ms B had still not been disclosed to the inquiry despite them being requested in February.

The details requested included what, if any, assistance was provided to her after she was sexually assaulted, after her friend committed suicide in the same house as her and what changes were made to the service’s processes in response to findings of an inquest into the death of a 24-year-old man by petrol sniffing in 2017.

“There’s someone at this bar table, other than myself, who has a belief that the reason we received everything very late and the reason these things were not answered is because effectively it’s trying to be kept from us. Do you think it’s a fair view?” Counsel assisting the coroner Kelvin Currie asked Mr Campion.

“No, I don’t,” Mr Campion replied.

The inquest also heard the case managers assigned to the children systematically failed to handle their cases according to legislation.

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“All the issues that have been in these cases are that the assessor has not understood the law and the guidelines … would that be fair to say?” Mr Currie asked?

“Yes,” Mr Campion responded.

Mr Campion also agreed that he himself appeared “not to have understood the law and guidelines in relation to these kind of matters”.

The inquest continues.

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