Zachary Rolfe’s ‘disgusting, racist’ texts with colleagues read out at Kumanjayi Walker inquest

Shocking text messages between NT police officers – revealing racist, sexist and offensive attitudes – have been read aloud at the inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death.

Zachary Rolfe fatally shot Walker during an arrest at the remote outback community of Yuendumu in November 2019 but has been acquitted of all charges related to his death.

Shocking text messages between Northern Territory police officers – revealing racist, sexist and offensive attitudes to the community, their colleagues and com­missioners – have been read aloud during a day of damning evidence at the inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death.

The private texts – extracted from Constable Zachary Rolfe’s iPhone after his arrest – reveal the “disgusting” attitudes of a handful of Alice Springs officers towards Indigenous people, bush cops and their female colleagues as well as their use of “blatantly racist” terms such as “coon” and “n...er”.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, ventilated the ­expletive-laden communications – exchanged between February and November 2019 – at the earliest opportunity on Wednesday after Coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Tuesday ruled that Constable Rolfe’s text messages were relevant to the inquest and should be admitted as evidence.

Constable Rolfe fatally shot Walker during an arrest at the remote outback community of Yuendumu in November 2019 but has been acquitted of all charges related to his death.

Dr Dwyer on Wednesday shared a tranche of Constable Rolfe’s private exchanges – extracted from more than 8000 pages of material detectives had downloaded from his phone – while Yuendumu Remote Sergeant Anne Jolley was giving her evidence.

Sergeant Jolley was not posted to Yuendumu at the time of the shooting, was not a party to any of the exchanges and had not worked with Constable Rolfe, but Dr Dwyer said she was seeking Sergeant Jolley’s “reflections on them as an experienced officer”.

On April 9, a female officer texted Constable Rolfe saying “I’m sick of Aboriginals tonight” before detailing a job she had attended at which she thought a domestic violence victim was lying to protect her perpetrator. “And I may have been super hangry,” the officer wrote.

Constable Rolfe responded: “Hate that.” He added: “Oi, if you’re hungry, you’re definitely allowed to towel locals up.”

Kumanjayi Walker

The female officer responded: “If your last name rhymes with Olf, you’re allowed to towel up ­locals.”

He wrote back: “I do have a ­license to towel locals. I like it.”

Sergeant Jolley said she believed that expression meant to “beat up locals”.

In another text exchange on April 27, 2019, an officer texted Constable Rolfe, saying: “I heard you had a rough arvo yesty? Grubby f..ks.”

Constable Rolfe replied: “Nah bra, just slightly annoying. Ha-ha. Coons man.”

Dr Dwyer said it was “shocking” to read the “blatantly racist disgusting term” that Constable Rolfe had used in the texts to refer to an Aboriginal person.

Sergeant Jolley, under questioning from Dr Dwyer, said she had never heard other police officers refer to Indigenous community members as “coons”. “It’s pretty disgraceful, to be honest. It’s just, you know, disrespectful.”

In another text exchange, Constable Rolfe calls community members “Neanderthals”.

“I just don’t get why all that work has got me to the point where it’s my job to look after ­Ne­anderthals who drink too much alcohol ha-ha,” the text said.

Dr Dwyer said she would ask Constable Rolfe, when he was called to give evidence, “what he was meaning to infer”. “But if by the use of the term ‘Neanderthals’ he’s meaning to refer to anybody who is of Aboriginal descent, do you agree that that is disgusting and disgraceful and wholly un­acceptable?” she said.

Dr Dwyer suggested it was also “offensive” and “racist”, to which Sergeant Jolley agreed.

The names of the officers with whom Constable Rolfe was communicating are the subject of a non-publication order and the court heard at least one officer was seeking legal representation.

Dr Dwyer then read a text sent from another officer to Constable Rolfe in June that year asking “who was the silly bitch?”

“F..k knows, some white bitch who thinks she’s Aboriginal,” Constable Rolfe replied.

The other officer wrote: “Lying in the dirt pissed, doing a f..king good impression.”

Sergeant Jolley said she was “shocked” by the “disgraceful” messages.

In one exchange from September 2019, a serving officer apologised to Constable Rolfe for “losing my shit the other night” while attending a job. Constable Rolfe replied: “Bro, there was literally no stress about it. I’m all for that shit. I’ve done the same thing to you more than once before. I’m always ready to make my camera face the other way, and be a dramatic c..t in the film, ha ha.”

The other officer texted Constable Rolfe back: “And the Oscar goes to.”

In another exchange, Constable Rolfe was communicating with an unidentified sergeant in July 2019 after an arrest.

“Cool, as long as we got him. Had a run, hey,” the sergeant said.

Constable Rolfe responded: “Yeah, the bush cops would never have been able to get him, impossible for them, so it was good we went. The bush cops f..ked up as usual but that just meant we had a run instead of getting him cordoned properly so it’s all good. He was fair rapid.”

The lawyer acting for NT police called the messages “repugnant”. Ian Freckelton KC said the “extremely regrettable expressions” did not represent the values of the NT Police Force or most of its members.