Family vigil held for dead man Terry Briscoe

RICHARD Morton and his cousin both struggled with alcohol addiction and said they would quit drinking together.

Richard Morton

WHEN Richard Morton saw his cousin just before Christmas, they both admitted they were struggling with alcohol addiction and said they would quit drinking together.

Days later, Terry Briscoe was found dead in an Alice Springs police station cell after being placed in protective custody when he was found drinking in a suburban park.

A coroner's investigation into the 28-year-old's death last Wednesday night is under way, with government and police declining to comment on unsubstantiated allegations that he was bashed by police.

Mr Morton joined more than 100 family members and friends for a candlelit vigil outside the Alice Springs police station on Sunday night, mourning the loss of the young Aboriginal man.

"I gave up alcohol because I saw the trouble it was causing in Alice and that's why I wanted to go back home and take my cousin with me," Mr Morton said.

"We grew up together and my stomach has turned upside down knowing he's no longer here."

It is understood police have been in regular contact with Mr Briscoe's family to discuss the investigation, amid concerns that anger over his death could lead to retaliation from family members.

While his family admits Mr Briscoe was no angel and that he had battled alcohol addiction and had run-ins with law enforcement in recent years, his death in custody has shocked the Aboriginal community.

Alice Springs resident Scott McConnell said it was sad to see the change brought over three generations, with Mr Briscoe's grandfather remembered as a highly respected station hand in the Northern Territory.

Mr Briscoe's aunt Patricia Morton-Thomas said Mr Briscoe's mother had died in childbirth and his father had since passed away. She said he had drifted from his community in Laramba, 210km northwest of Alice Springs, and family houses in the town and town camps in the years since.

"The fact that he was an orphan really got to him," she said. "When he had been drinking, he would get very depressed and say that no one wanted him and he was alone.

"No matter what happened when he drank, he would always come back the next day to make amends because he couldn't bear the thought of someone thinking ill of him."

She said he was well loved in the family and always welcome to stay whenever he arrived at her doorstep. Ms Morton-Thomas called on the government to appoint an independent investigator into Mr Briscoe's death, so that the police were not investigating themselves.

"Police protective custody should be just that - protection," Ms Morton-Thomas told those at the vigil. "Our boy is gone because we have bullies in the police force.

"In this case, they picked on the wrong person. They picked on someone who has a great (many) voices (to speak out for him)," Ms Morton-Thomas said.