Police assault that led to riot 'didn't happen'

INVESTIGATORS from Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission have scotched claims by an indigenous man that he was severely beaten by police - an allegation that led to a violent riot in Aurukun on western Cape York.

INVESTIGATORS from Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission have scotched claims by an indigenous man that he was severely beaten by police - an allegation that led to a violent riot in Aurukun on western Cape York.

Inconsistencies in Warren Bell's complaint, as well as medical and forensic evidence that ran contrary to his version of events, have been set out in a report released yesterday by CMC assistant commissioner Stephen Lambrides.

Mr Bell, 22, who was arrested by police early last month, triggered the CMC inquiry after telling a member of Aurukun's Justice Group that he had been assaulted.

He had a head injury, but he had earlier told police in a taped record of interview that this was caused by a brother striking him with a bicycle rim.

While in custody, Mr Bell vomited and suffered a seizure. That was the result, according to medical experts, of excessive alcohol consumption.

In the CMC's report yesterday, Mr Bell told investigators that a member of the Aurukun Community Justice Group, Martha Koowarta, had asked him: "I think them two coppers were hitting you, hey?"

Before being asked this question, he had spoken to members of his family and staff at a local medical clinic, none of whom were told police had struck him.

"On the contrary, he told them that his brother had hit him," Mr Lambrides said.

"Koowarta told investigators that when she saw Bell at the clinic on Tuesday morning he told her directly that three police officers had bashed him at the police station, inside the cells.

"The only independent evidence to corroborate or support Warren Bell's allegation - an injury to his forehead, the seizure in the cell, the blood and vomit in the cell, and the accounts of the people who said that he had no injury before the arrest - is challenged by the medical evidence, the forensic examination of the cell, and Bell's own account of how he received his injury. Therefore the CMC concludes that there is no ground for referring anything to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible criminal charges."

The Bell complaint came amid heightened tensions over the unresolved death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, who suffered shocking internal injuries in a police cell on Palm Island in November 2004. The riot that followed Mr Bell's complaint caused extensive property damage to the police station and the community.

While the CMC's investigation, conducted jointly with Queensland police, made no adverse findings against any officers involved in the arrest, disciplinary action is being considered for the failure to videotape Mr Bell in his cell at Aurukun police station.