NT Police acting assistant Police Commissioner James O’Brien demoted following Ngeygo Ragurrk inquest comments

A member of NT Police’s top brass has been spectacularly demoted after publicly downplaying frontline officers’ experience of domestic violence.

An inquest was told on Friday that acting assistant Police Commissioner James O’Brien had been stood down from his acting role after an “unfortunate interview” that same morning.

A member of NT Police’s top brass has been spectacularly demoted after downplaying frontline officers’ experience of domestic violence in a “fundamental disconnect” from evidence heard at a coronial inquiry.

The force’s barrister Ian Freckelton KC told the inquest on Friday that acting assistant Police Commissioner James O’Brien had been stood down from his acting role after an “unfortunate interview” that morning.

“He is returning to his substantive rank as commander,” Dr Freckelton said.

In the interview on ABC radio on Friday, Mr O’Brien said overwhelming rates of abuse described in evidence from a fellow officer at the inquiry “may have been mistaken”.

The then acting assistant commissioner was asked if there were enough police resources to respond to domestic violence and replied that he “wouldn’t say we’re at breaking point”.

“From what I’ve seen we do have enough police to respond to DV incidents in a timely fashion,” he said.

Mr O’Brien said two crews in Darwin, Palmerston and Casuarina “seems to get us by with the serious jobs we do attend”.

The comments came after five days of emotional evidence from general duties officers, domestic violence units and triple-0 operators at an inquest into the death of Ngeygo Ragurrk.

The family of Ngeygo Ragurrk's lawyer James Lowrey, left, with coroner Elisabeth Armitage, counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer and Maria Walz take part in a ceremony at Mindil Beach, where on December 23 2019 the 40-year-old woman was killed by her partner Garsek Nawirridj. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Mr Mr O’Brien told the interview: “We get to all the jobs that we need to on time”, saying “I would say, yes we do have enough vans.”

It followed general duties officers telling coroner Elisabeth Armitage they were constantly moving from “job to job” and triple-0 operators saying urgent call-outs had no crews to respond for up to four hours.

Following Mr O’Brien’s public comments, counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court his statement was a “fundamental disconnect between what we have heard”.

With more than 80 per cent of their call outs to domestic violence incidents, general duties officers earlier admitted they had missed “red flags”, saying additional risk assessment training could be helpful.

Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre Dispatch Sergeant Wolfgang Langeneck with NT Police superintendent Kirsten Engels after day two of the coronial inquest into the domestic violence death of Ngeygo Ragurrk.

In emotional testimony, Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre Dispatch Sergeant Wolfgang Langeneck said domestic violence incidents were overwhelming call centres, with urgent jobs not responded to for up to three days due to a lack of crews.

He said it was a only “matter of probability” as to when police would find “that domestic victim in the bathroom, dead”.

But in the interview Mr O’Brien said Sergeant Langeneck “may have been mistaken” in his evidence.

“He may have been under a lot of pressure, I’m not going to criticise him if that’s his feeling,” he said.

Mr O’Brien denied there was a domestic violence “crisis” and said delays to responses were “an aberration”.

Earlier in the day, Ms Armitage said if there were “different views in the upper echelons of police” about domestic violence training and responses, “we are happy to explore those”.

Dr Freckelton told the coroner that acting Commissioner Michael Murphy had contacted Mr O’Brien following his interview and his statements were “not the position of the NT police force”.

Dr Dwyer then asked the inquest to call Mr O’Brien as a witness, given that his interview “potentially touched on … the reliability of some of the evidence this inquest has received”.

“It wasn’t clear from listening to assistant commissioner O’Brien that he appreciated those issues and he seemed to have a different view,” she said.

She also called for body cam footage used to train new recruits in domestic violence responses to be shown to the coroner.

Northern Territory Police Association president Nathan Finn said the Friday clash highlighted a disconnect between rank-and-file officers, senior police management, and the NT government, and called for an independent review of police resources.

“Our police force is stretched beyond breaking point,” Mr Finn said.

“It’ not uncommon for dozens of domestic violence reports to be unattended for hours, if not days, because of a lack of staff and lack of resources.

“Our members are doing the best they can with the finite resources they have, and that impacts their response capability.”

The inquest continues on Monday, when Mr O’Brien is expected to be among other witnesses to give evidence.

Originally published as NT Police acting assistant Police Commissioner James O’Brien demoted following Ngeygo Ragurrk inquest comments