Indigenous girls’ suicides ‘highly suspicious’, NT court hears

The deaths of three teenage Aboriginal girls were not properly investigated before being treated as suicides, a court has heard.

NT Poilce Assistant Commissioner Nick Anticich. Picture: Che Chorley

The deaths of three teenage Aboriginal girls in remote Northern Territory communities were not properly investigated before being treated as suicides and should be referred back to police and public prosecutors for re-examination, a court has heard.

At the end of a harrowing three-day inquest, coroner Greg Cavanagh was told one “highly suspicious” death might have ­involved foul play and the evidence was strong enough for him to believe crimes occurred in connection with all three deaths.

Fionica Yarranganlagi James, Keturah Cheralyn Mamarika and Layla “Gulum” Leering were aged between 15 and 17 when they died by hanging in unrelated incidents in 2016 and 2017, the court heard. No one had been charged over any of them and no files referred to prosecutors despite autopsies ­recording “fresh genital injuries” on two girls and a facial gash on the third.

Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Anticich — a veteran of the Western Australian Police Force and the Australian Federal Police — testified on Thursday that he believed the deaths were suicides. He had seen just one non-self-­inflicted hanging in his career.

But he acknowledged the investigations, all done before he joined the Northern Territory Police Force, suffered from many failings, including unconscious bias, and described new admissions from one of the witnesses during the inquest as a “revelation”.

Counsel assisting the coroner Kelvin Currie said the investigations were inadequate.

“In my submission, there is sufficient evidence for you be of the belief that an offence has been committed in connection with (each of) the deaths, and I submit each of the matters be referred to the police and the DPP,” Mr Currie said.

He told Mr Cavanagh that ­Keturah had probably been raped by three males when she was 12. Government agencies did not discover that until after her death, ­despite her family seeking contraception, which “provoked a limited and unhelpful response”.

He said that on the morning Keturah died, “she seemed happy and taking selfies”.

“She had plans for the day,” Mr Currie said. “However, between 6.30am and 7am, it seems that she was raped.”

Her sister and sister’s husband (who admitted to calling Keturah his “young wife”) left the house about 7am, about an hour earlier than usual. Keturah’s mother found her sitting on the floor of a locked room with an extension cord around her neck. After police left, Keturah’s extended family bleach-cleaned the entire house, something even her sister ­acknowledged was unusual.

“The circumstances of Cheralyn’s (Keturah’s) death remain most unclear and highly suspicious,” Mr Currie said. “I submit that there is not sufficient ­evidence to rule out third-party ­involvement.”

The inquest heard that Fionica’s life began to spiral when she hit her teenage years. At age 14, she was detained and raped by an older man. She got into a relationship that involved threats, jealousy, allegations of domestic violence and repeated injuries.

Once near the end of her life, a relative escorted her to Darwin for hospital treatment. “They were put up in accommodation, and the family member left her alone and went off drinking,” Mr Currie said.

He told the court “none” of the government agencies involved in Fionica’s life had helped but added most had since conceded they “should have done much better”.

Layla, like Fionica, got into trouble after primary school. She was expelled from two boarding schools.

Layla was drinking with others on the night she died but got into an argument with a relative. “She was likely raped by a young male that lived in the same house as her,” Mr Currie told the inquest.

The coroner will receive final written submissions before considering his findings.