NT Coroner warns ‘radical re-evaluation’ needed to address domestic violence rates

Extra police resources, domestic violence training, and Aboriginal placements to be proposed after damning investigation into woman’s death. Read what the coronial inquest heard.

Over a series of inquiries Elisabeth Armitage has aimed to expose the gruesome reality of domestic violence rates in the NT, and the service gaps trapping vulnerable victims..

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and image of Indigenous people who have passed, used with the permission of their families.

The Territory is in need of a “radical re-evaluation” to address the rising tide of family violence, the coroner has warned.

Over a series of inquiries Elisabeth Armitage has aimed to expose the gruesome reality of domestic violence rates in the NT, and the service gaps trapping vulnerable victims.

On Tuesday, Ms Armitage brought to a close seven days of hearings investigating the death of Ngeygo Ragurrk — the second of four Aboriginal women’s stories to be told over the six months coronial inquiry.

The family of a woman killed by her husband at Mindil Beach on December 23, 2019 has provided an image of Ngeygo Ragurrk when she was 18 years old at Goulburn Island.

Two days before Christmas 2019, the 40-year-old Mirrangangu woman was subjected to 25 minutes of “abominable torture” at the hands of her husband Garsek Nawirridj in shrub lands next to the Mindil Beach Casino.

Nawirridj pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The inquest revealed repeated failures to arrest Nawirridj during an erratic rampage the morning of her killing, investigative blunders, and multiple incidents where police scrubbed out all references to domestic violence from his file.

Police body cam recorded conversations with Garsek Nawirridj after he tortured and fatally assaulted his wife 40-year-old Ngeygo Ragurrk on December 23, 2019.

“We can’t keep responding to the levels of violence, with so little effect,” Ms Armitage said on Tuesday.

“At this stage, there doesn’t seem a path forward without a radical re-evaluation.”

It comes after NT Police Assistant Commissioner Michael White told the inquest domestic violence rates had reached record breaking levels.

Mr White said over the past 10 years abuse in Territory homes had increased by 117 per cent, with modelling predicting it could rise by a further 73 per cent by 2033.

Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer said in telling the stories of women like Ngeygo, the Territory could understood the “very real tragedies behind those numbers”.

“There will be many more people like Ngeygo who we will lose, if there’s not that co-ordinated, intensive, radical response,” Dr Dwyer said.

She said the recommendations from the coronials would likely focus on the staffing and resourcing of triple-0 centres and officers, domestic violence training, and the establishment of a multidisciplinary team to assist police.

Dr Dwyer said the evidence also suggested a need for Aboriginal interpreters, particularly in the triple-0 centres, and cultural competency training.

The family of Ngeygo Ragurrk's lawyer James Lowrey, left, with coroner Elisabeth Armitage, counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer and Maria Walz take part in a ceremony at Mindil Beach, where on December 23 2019 the 40-year-old woman was killed by her partner Garsek Nawirridj. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

She said the coroner’s office had also embraced the “spirit of learning”, taking on recommendations from Ngeygo’s family.

“We learnt that it was hurtful for family to have to wait for two years to get Ngeygo’s belongings back,” she said.

“On behalf of all of us, to the family, to thank them so much for including us and helping us learn alongside them.”

The six-month coronial will next consider the killing of Miss Yunupingu, a 29-year-old woman who was fatally stabbed by her partner Neil Marika during a drunken argument at Palmerston in October 2018.

The 36-year-old man was sentenced to nine years in jail for reckless manslaughter.

The coroner heard that like the other women Miss Yunupingu had suffered years of violence at his hands, but she was the only one of the four to be referred to the government’s ‘action-based integrated service response’.

NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage and her counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer tour the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre (JESCC) to see how triple-0 calls are taken and dispatched to police.

“She was re-referred and then not accepted on to the Family Safety Framework and we want to try and understand why that was,” Dr Dwyer said.

Dr Dwyer said the August inquest would focus on risk management following release from prison, with the 29-year-old killed soon after her abuser was set free.

She said the final hearing would return to Alice Springs, to explore how a domestic violence champion ended up becoming a victim herself.

R.Rubuntja passed away after being struck by a car on Thursday January 7 2021 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) outside the Hospital.

Dr Dwyer said despite 19 reports of violence between Kumanjayi Rubuntja and her partner — who had an earlier conviction for the manslaughter of another woman — she was never referred to the Family Safety Framework.

“Kumanjayi Rubuntja … was herself a powerful advocate and supporter of other victims,” she said.

“And so we will ask why it was so hard for her to get the help that she needed when she became a victim.”

“These tragic deaths are highlighting the need for a radical rethink about the way we respond, as a community, to the appalling levels of domestic and family violence, that are experienced in the Northern Territory.”