Victim blamed for lack of medics

Teen allegedly murdered by an NT policeman might have been partly to blame for a lack of medical staff, court told.

Zach Rolfe arriving at Canberra Airport. Constable Zach Rolfe was charged on Wednesday over the fatal shooting of man at Yuendumu.

The Aboriginal teenager allegedly murdered by decorated Northern Territory police constable Zachary Rolfe might have been partly to blame for lack of medical staff in the outback community where the shooting happened, a court has been told.

In a hearing at Alice Springs Local Court on Friday, Constable Rolfe’s barrister, David Edwardson QC, pushed to be ­allowed to cross-examine witnesses about whether Kumanjayi Walker had participated in vandalism that caused the medical staff to flee.

Walker, 19, was allegedly shot by Constable Rolfe in November during an attempted arrest gone wrong at his home at Yuendumu, 300km from Alice Springs. The policeman was charged with murder a few days later, sparking tension between frontline officers and senior police.

Mr Edwardson told judge John Birch that Walker’s “predisposition for violence” was “highly relevant” to his client’s committal hearing, scheduled to begin in September, including to the issue of which parties may have acted in self-defence.

“Your Honour would know from the papers that the medical clinic had no doctors available at the time of the alleged shooting because the medical clinic had, effectively, been smashed by out by a number of people,” he said.

“As I understand it, it’s likely that one of those persons who were involved in smashing up (the clinic) resulting in … the medical staff leaving that ­location, so they weren’t present at the time of the alleged shooting, was indeed the now deceased.”

He said Walker had also threatened officers with an axe in the days before the shooting. It was important to ­establish to what extent that information had been shared with Constable Rolfe.

Mr Edwardson also said there was “a suggestion” in the crown case that “the accused … may not have acted in accordance with training”.

Sydney barrister Philip Strickland SC, acting for the Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions, objected to Mr ­Edwardson’s request to call a ­trauma surgeon with military ­experience to testify if Walker could have posed an ongoing threat after being shot three times.

“To be able to express an opinion on the extent to which (Walker) may have been a direct physical threat to (Rolfe’s partner), (the surgeon) would need to know, for example, whether Mr Walker’s arm, which was holding the scissors, was pinioned down by (Rolfe’s partner),” Mr Strickland said.

Mr Edwardson suggested the scissors could potentially have severed an artery.

The case will return to court next Wednesday.