Zach Rolfe’s ex-fiancee Claudia Campagnaro, NT Police top brass on witness list as Kumanjayi Walker inquest set to begin

NT Police officer Zach Rolfe’s ex-fiancee will be among more than 80 witnesses due to take the stand when an inquest into the death of Yuendumu teenager Kumanjayi Walker begins on Monday.

The long awaited inquest into the police shooting death of Yuendumu teenager Kumanjayi Walker is due to begin in Alice Springs on Monday, with the man who killed him among those to take the stand.

Constable Zach Rolfe was acquitted on all charges by a Supreme Court jury in March after fatally shooting the 19-year-old during a chaotic attempted arrest in the Aboriginal community in 2019.

Constable Rolfe will be one of more than 80 witnesses now expected to testify in the Alice Springs Local Court over the next three months, along with members of NT Police’s top brass and Mr Walker’s family.

Also due to give evidence is Const Rolfe’s former fiancee, ex-cop Claudia Campagnaro, who told detectives investigating the shooting in August 2020 she had interviewed a man Constable Rolfe had arrested who “had this massive gash above his head”.

“I can’t say I know for a fact, this is what I’ve been told by Zach himself, that to justify his force he had someone upstairs scratch him for justification of why he used his spray and gave that man the gash on his – above his eye,” she said.

NT Police man Zach Rolfe outside NT Supreme Court Picture: Glenn Campbell

Ms Campagnaro said she had understood Constable Rolfe had been “punching and kicking” the man while he was on the ground.

“Then later when I was at the station, Zach, um, told someone else, and I can’t remember who else was with me, like, secretly where the cameras weren’t looking at work, that he had had someone scratch him,” she said.

“Someone upstairs had scratched him for him so he could say in his use of force, that that was why he had given him that gash on his forehead.”

Ms Campagnaro also told the detectives Constable Rolfe “loved arresting people”.

“He was active, like he was good in that sense I suppose,” she said.

“But he didn’t care about or like any of the Indigenous people there and, um, I know this because he told me, um, that a lot of his unjustified forces were just swept away by the senior sergeants that were in charge of him.

“I think he just felt like he could just use unjustified force all the time because it was always going to be covered up.”

The transcript of the interview was released by the Supreme Court following Const Rolfe’s acquittal, after it had been ruled inadmissible at his trial by Justice John Burns.

Controversial use of force experts Andrew Barram and Ben McDevitt will also be questioned by Coroner Elisabeth Armitage and her counsel assisting team.

Rolfe

However, a prominent absentee from the witness list is current NT Police Commissioner, Jamie Chalker, with Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy listed as chief of police on the day of the shooting.

On Monday, counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, will open the inquest, while Warlpiri Elders, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves and Robin Japanangka Granites, are expected to make an informal statement.

Constable Rolfe returned to work with NT Police in July after being cleared to do so through an internal investigation.