Revealed: racist emails circulated in prosecutors’ office ahead of riot sparked by death of Cameron Mulrunji Doomadgee
Twenty years on from one of the nation’s most notorious deaths in custody, the emergence of racist emails raises new questions about bias in the criminal justice system.
A racist cartoon was circulated by office email among staff of Queensland’s Crown Prosecution Service ahead of the controversial 2004 death in custody of Indigenous man Cameron Mulrunji Doomadgee, heightening concern about bias in the criminal justice system.
The emergence of the offensive cartoon comes as the 3500-strong Aboriginal community of Palm Island prepares to mark the 20th anniversary on Tuesday of Doomadgee’s death in the police lockup there – a tragedy that led to disastrous rioting, political uproar, up-ended coronial findings, judicial reviews and court drama drawn out over years of bitterly contested proceedings and trials.
The cartoon depicting a flock of black ducklings, and captioned with a deeply racist term, was sent around the state Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Townsville on November 11, 2004, eight days before Doomadgee died on nearby Palm Island after being arrested while allegedly drunk.
The email distribution list shows it was forwarded by an administrative officer to at least 12 other staff in the Townsville office, including Crown prosecutors who went on to be involved in the Doomadgee saga. The administrative officer remains employed by the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
This was not an isolated incident. The Australian has also obtained a copy of a racist email circulated to ODPP staff in Townsville in January 2008, styled as an ABC “media release”. The sham document read: “In response to a number of complaints that there are not enough Indigenous and Asian people appearing on TV, ABC Television have (sic) decided that in future ‘Crimestoppers’ will be shown ‘TWICE’ weekly.”
Speaking on condition that they not be identified, the person said: “The distribution of such a document would be wrong today and it was wrong then. Remember, our office was responsible for prosecuting serious crimes throughout north Queensland. That meant that many of the victims, witnesses and accused were Aboriginal or Islander people.
“That someone in our office thought it was OK to distribute such a document within or without the office was surprising, to say the least. I think naivety rather than any considered expression of personal belief was to blame for the distribution.”
It is understood that then regional consultant Peter Smid, the ranking prosecutor in Townsville, was informed that the ducks cartoon had been circulated. It is not clear what action, if any, was taken.
The Australian is not suggesting Mr Smid or any person who received either email had invited the messages or condoned them. Mr Smid, who later served as a magistrate, did not respond to written questions sent to the Queensland Chief Magistrate for his attention.
The Office of the DPP, headed by Todd Fuller KC, said it would refer the emails to the state Department of Justice and Attorney-General’s ethical standards unit for assessment.
But, given the time elapsed, the ODPP was not able to authenticate the documents or confirm the “context in which they were allegedly sent”. A spokesperson said: “No conclusion can be drawn about the culture in the Townsville office in 2004 and 2008 on the basis of two emails dated four years apart.”
Although the ducks cartoon went around the Townsville office prior to Doomadgee’s death, its proximity to the calamitous fallout on Palm Island should have sounded alarm bells, observers said.
Another staff member from the time, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was an “appalling lapse” that should not have been tolerated. “It was very clear that after the death (of Doomadgee) the situation was extremely volatile on Palm Island,” the person said. “I think people at that point should have been reminded of their responsibility to behave professionally and not to do or say anything that might reflect poorly on the office. As far as I can remember, nothing was said.”
The community erupted when Doomadgee’s family received a copy of the post-mortem report showing he had sustained four broken ribs and a fatal liver rupture. They were informed by the coroner that this was consistent with the 36-year-old falling off a concrete step while struggling with the island’s police chief, senior sergeant Chris Hurley, at the watch-house entrance. Hurley, who stood 201cm and weighed 115kg, subsequently said the injuries may have been inflicted when he accidentally toppled on to Doomadgee, a slight man of 74kg.
Armed reinforcements were flown in to restore order in a response that turned heavy-handed. Residents claimed assault rifles were trained on children as police outfitted in riot gear went house to house to arrest suspects. The Queensland government in 2018 was forced to settle a class action for $30m and apologise to Palm Islanders for the “distress, humiliation and violence” caused by the raids, which amounted to discrimination “on the basis of their race”.
By then, the blizzard of criminal prosecutions, hearings and investigations had devolved into a shambles, reaching all the way to the highest court in the land. A coroner’s 2006 finding that Hurley had killed Doomadgee with a series of punches was quashed on appeal, adding to the clamour over the policeman’s culpability. Then Queensland DPP Leanne Clare, now a senior District Court judge, declined to prosecute Hurley but was overruled by state attorney-general Kerry Shine on the basis of an independent review conducted by former NSW chief justice Laurence Street.
After being paroled in 2010, Wotton went to the High Court to challenge conditions of his release that gagged him from speaking to the media. He lost. A fresh inquest found that Hurley may have fatally injured Doomadgee with an accidental “knee drop” into the Aboriginal man’s torso when they fell together while grappling outside the watch-house. However, coroner Brian Hine said he could not make a definitive finding due to the unreliability of both the police and Aboriginal witnesses.
Looking back, Mr Lacey said: “Tuesday is the 20th anniversary of the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee and the Palm Island community will mark this day with a healing ceremony. We cannot undo the past so our focus is on healing, education and awareness, and ensuring a better life for the new generation of Bwgcolman peoples.”
But Mr Boe cautioned against drawing a connection between the racist emails that went around the ODPP in Townsville and the prosecution of the Doomadgee affair, saying there was no suggestion “this sort of conduct directly informed any decision by the DPP … including the decision not to prosecute senior sergeant Chris Hurley”.
At the same time, expressions of racism could never be passed off as “just a joke”, Mr Boe said. He told The Australian: “There has been a plethora of similar conduct in police forces, sporting clubs and in corporate environments where the person seeks to suggest that merely expressing these views or circulating racially offensive ‘jokes’ does not mean that they are racist or they have behaved in a racist manner.
“Or they say ‘it was just a joke’. Those explanations have invariably either been accepted, or resulted in no action being taken. That distinction is utter nonsense.”
The spokesperson for the ODPP said: “The decision not to prosecute (Hurley) in the Palm Island matter was taken by the then Director of Public Prosecutions, not the Townsville office. The subsequent prosecution was conducted by independent counsel engaged by the attorney-general.”
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