Rib-breaking boyfriend sought compo for Miss Dhu’s death

Deon James Ruffin made an unsuccessful request to the McGowan Labor government for compensation over the death.

Miss Dhu.

The boyfriend of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman who died from an infection that took hold in a rib fracture he caused by throwing her on the ground tried to get ­compensation from the West Australian government.

The Australian has learned that Deon James Ruffin made an unsuccessful request to the McGowan Labor government for compensation over the death of the woman known for cultural reasons only as Miss Dhu. An inquest­ found their relationship was marred by domestic violence.

Mr Ruffin broke Miss Dhu’s 10th rib when he threw her over his shoulder and on to the ground in a “disagreement”, an inquest heard. “Her ultimately fatal ­infection stemmed from that ­original fracture of the 10th rib,” the coroner­ found.

Miss Dhu was arrested in the WA iron ore town of South ­Hedland on August 2, 2014, to serve out an unpaid $1000 fine.

Police were indifferent to Miss Dhu’s pain as she was literally dying from septicaemia and pneumonia. Doctors failed to detect her condition when police twice took her to the emergency department of the local hospital.

The third time they took her, she was in cardiac arrest and could not be revived.

In 2017, WA Attorney-General John Quigley gave a $1.1m ex ­gratia payment and an apology to five of Miss Dhu’s close relatives, including her grandmother Carol Roe, who raised her.

Ms Roe said she knew Mr Ruffin­ had sought compensation. “The cheek of him asking for money for my granddaughter’s death,” she said.