NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage to assess the domestic violence red flag missed before the killings of four women
The brutal final moments of four Territory women killed by family members will come under the scrutiny of the Northern Territory coroner. See the list of coronial investigations for 2023 here.
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WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are warned the following article contains names and images of the deceased.
A 16 word text was all a Central Australian mother was able to tell her daughter before she was burnt alive in her home.
“Today your dad is going to kill me. I love you, please don’t cry for me,” her final message said.
The journey of four women killed by family members will come under the scrutiny of the Northern Territory coroner in 2023, revealing the gruesome reality of the horrors within Territory homes.
Elisabeth Armitage has confirmed 11 public hearings to date, with inquiries into the potential systemic causes of numerous deaths in custody and in care, and other violent deaths.
It is understood the Coroner’s office received about 400 notifiable deaths a year, but only 20 are selected for a public inquest.
While deaths in custody and in care are subject to mandatory hearings, Ms Armitage has selected to hear the details of the domestic violence-related deaths of the four women over two inquiries in June.
An investigation will assess the common factors behind the killings of a 29-year-old young Palmerston mother, stabbed to death with a steak knife, and a 40-year-old woman “tortured” in scrubland near the Mindil Beach Casino 14 months later.
In February 2020, Neil Marika pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to the manslaughter of his 29-year-old wife, with the court hearing the 36-year-old had a long history of brutally assaulting her.
Prosecutors told the court Marika had “regularly inflicted brutal assaults”, including one “vicious” attack in 2006 in which “she came very close to death”.
On October 2018 Marika was drunk and in breach of his domestic violence order when he picked up the knife and repeatedly stabbed his wife in the heart and lungs.
On Christmas Eve the next year motorists watched and did nothing as another man dragged a 40-year-old mother of two for more than a kilometre from Darwin city to Mindil Beach.
Garsek Nawirridj admitted to assaulting his partner for 25 minutes in a secluded area of the casino car park, before dragging her body and stripping her in the shallow waters of the beach.
Again, the courts heard authorities were aware of his history of abuse.
During Nawirridj’s sentencing Justice Jenny Blokland asked “why do they deserve to be the victims of such atrocious actions like yours?”
In Central Australia the coroner has grouped together the deaths of a 34-year-old woman burnt alive by her partner in Hidden Valley Town Camp and a leading anti-domestic violence campaigner mowed down by her 49-year-old partner outside Alice Springs hospital.
Indigenous anti-domestic violence campaigner R. Rubuntja was one of the founding Leaders of the Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group and President of Anthepe Town Camp.
She was a beloved community member, mother, grandmother and leader. Yet that likely did not matter to Malcolm Abbott when he repeatedly drove over her body in the hospital carpark.
Once again during his sentencing the Supreme Court heard Abbott has a long history of horrific domestic violence, including a manslaughter conviction from 1997 in which he stabbed two women, killing one of them.
Exactly 10 months later Central Australian police would again be called to the charred crime scene of another domestic violence killing.
A 34-year-old woman hid in her room as her partner poured fuel over her door before setting it alight.
Only hours before she texted her young daughter: “Today your dad is going to kill me. I love you, please don’t cry for me”.
The 34-year-old woman suffered significant burns, and passed away in hospital two days later. The man died as a result of the burns seven days later.
These four women represent only a snapshot of the scale of domestic violence in the Territory, with the Police annual report saying family violence made up 63 per cent of all assaults.
“The victimisation rate for Aboriginal people is 18 times higher than non-Aboriginal people in the NT,” the annual report said.
The inquiries are far from the first time domestic violence has gone under the coroner’s spotlight, but Ms Armitage selecting these case studies will force major departments to assess how they respond to victims and survivors before it is too late.
The coroner has also chosen to investigate the drowning of a two-year-old toddler in a Katherine family pool in April 2022.
Police initially said the toddler was found unresponsive in a pool during a gathering, with an older child finding their body.
A off-duty nurse attempted CPR before paramedics arrived, but the child passed away at Katherine Hospital.
While the Coroner looks into all deaths involving children, not all proceed to a public inquiry.
The two-year-old’s hearing will be held on May 16, 2023 at Darwin Local Court.
Ms Armitage will also assess if safety measures were “grossly lacking” after an avid photographer “filmed his own death” at the 2021 Finke Desert Race in 2021.
On May 9 the part-heard coronial inquest will assess if safety mismanagement by race organisers contributed to the fatal crash which claimed the life of Nigel Roy Harris during the 2021 rally.
The coroner will continue her investigation into the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, continuing the three-month comprehensive inquiry in Central Australia.
Half of the coronial inquiries announced are part of mandatory public hearings, dealing with deaths in custody and care.
The Walker death in police custody investigation comes as Ms Armitage also probes into two deaths in Holtze prison.
Ms Armitage will continue a part-heard inquiry in February to explain why a 31-year-old Aboriginal man, Bernard Hector was taken off suicide watch, and how Corrections and Health staff did not pick up his deteriorating condition in the six-weeks before his suicide.
She will also assess the care, supervision and treatment of a 37-year-old Indigenous man, who was taken from Holtze to Royal Darwin Hospital before he passed away in October 2022, but the inquiry date has not yet been confirmed.
The deaths of two teenagers under the care of Territory Families will be the subject of further investigation.
The 17-year-old girl was at an intensive therapeutic residential care home in Katherine when she died on October 2, 2022, the second death in out-of-home care in three months.
A 15-year-old boy was killed when a stolen vehicle with four others on board crashed on the Stuart Highway.
Both children were in facilities operated by CASPA, a New South Wales-based social service that started operating in the Northern Territory in February 2021.
The death in care of a 15-year-old girl at Alice Springs on October 31, 2021 will also be assessed on March 30.
Territory Families said the department would assist with any inquest as requested by the Coroner.
“Territory Families, Housing and Communities extends its deepest condolences to the families, friends and communities affected by these inquests,” a spokesman said.
A fourth death in care investigation will assess the factors contributing to a 35-year-old woman passing away on July 3, 2021 at Royal Darwin Hospital.
NT Health could not confirm if they had been called to give evidence in these investigations.
“As the upcoming coronial investigation you’ve referred to is a matter before the courts, NT Health is unable to provide further information,” a spokeswoman said.
The latest annual report said NT Health reports all patients who die under anaesthetic, or unnatural, violent, unexpected deaths to the Coroner.
The latest annual report reported there was one fatal sentinel event, “an event that is considered wholly preventable but has resulted in serious harm to, or death of, a patient”.
It said in the last financial year a patient in an acute psychiatric unit or ward died in a suspected suicide.
NT Health would not provide the age, gender, date of incident, or hospital in question, to protect patient privacy.
While this fatal incident would be reported to the coroner, it is unknown if it will be subject to a public inquiry.
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