‘Manslaughter charges should’ve been laid’ over 1987 Bourke deaths

Manslaughter charges should have been laid against white man who escaped jail sentence after two Indigenous girls died, says a senior NSW cop.

Mona-Lisa Smith.

Manslaughter charges should have been laid against a middle-aged white man who escaped conviction after two Indigenous girls died of horrific injuries while in his company, a senior NSW police officer has said.

Detective Inspector Paul Quigg, who has conducted a “thorough” review of the police brief of evidence relating to the deaths of Bourke teenagers Mona Lisa Smith, 16, and Jacinta Smith, 15 in 1987, told an inquest into the girls’ deaths: “A manslaughter charge would have been an appropriate charge to be laid (against the accused man) initially.’’

The senior investigator also disputed a contentious decision by prosecutors to withdraw a charge of sexually interfering with Jacinta’s corpse levelled against the defendant, Alexander Ian Grant, who walked free from court in 1990. “I believe from the evidence that I’ve reviewed … there was sufficient evidence to proceed with that particular indictment at trial,’’ he said. “That was a legal decision by the Department of Public Prosecutions or the director at the time.’’

Jacinta, known as Cindy, and Mona Smith died just hours after they accepted a lift from 40-year-Grant, an excavator driver, in the NSW outback town of Bourke, in December 1987.

Grant was found, drunk and unharmed, with the two deceased girls at the crash site outside Bourke. His arm was slung across the naked breasts of 15-year-old Cindy, whose clothing had been interfered with to expose her body. Mona was partially scalped and lost an ear in the accident.

Grant was acquitted of culpable driving charges after his defence team argued Mona was driving the ute, while the interfere with corpse charge was withdrawn.

Inspector Quigg said there were “major flaws” in the initial police investigation into the cousins’ deaths. “Unfortunately, a lot of basic investigative techniques, lines of inquiry have not been completed,’’ he told the resumed inquest at Bourke Court House.

The inquest has heard these flaws included a failure to seize Grant’s ute, which was involved in the double fatality. Asked if “that is shocking to you”, Inspector Quigg replied: “Yes, it is.’’

He added: “It’s been a hard investigation, deeply moving.’’

Other police failures, he said, included “inadequate” crime scene photos and forensic testing of physical evidence, failure to take statements from the first witnesses at the scene and failure to investigate the “critical” issue of whether Mona could drive – an issue on which the case turned.

He said the initial police investigation had “left a lot of questions unanswered” over the past 36 years, and resulted in a “hard relationship” between police and Bourke’s Indigenous community, which had since improved.

Inspector Quigg also discovered the transcript from Grant’s 1990 trial has been lost.

The inquest heard Bourke’s Aboriginal community complained about the flawed original investigation as early as 1990, when Grant was acquitted.

Earlier on Tuesday, a former Bourke resident wept at the inquest as he said he was “pushed out of town” because of rumours he was involved in the girls’ deaths.

The man – a distant relative of the girls – said: “I left town because I felt I wasn’t safe there … it wasn’t my home town anymore.’’ After they died, he said, “my whole world turned” because of gossip and “people trying to put everything on to me’’.

The inquest had heard witness Michael Knight testify that the man admitted while drunk that he had sex with Jacinta and Mona on the night they died and bit Mona’s ear off. “I would never say something like that ever!’’ the man told the inquest, becoming visibly upset. “I’m a very reserved person; keep things to myself.’’

Now 59 and testifying remotely from Kempsey in northern NSW, he could not recall the alleged conversation with Knight. He said Knight “had it in for me” because he once testified against him in court. Asked why Smith family members claimed they saw him with blood on him on the night of the girls’ deaths, he said: “I had no injuries. … I will go to my grave saying I had nothing to do with this.’’

The inquest continues on Wednesday.