A coronial inquest heard about the deaths of Sergeant Robert Cooke and Constable Simon Darke

A popular Tasmanian rural policeman feared he would lose the job he loved because of his mental ill-health, a coronial inquest has heard as it examines the deaths of four officers >

Tasmania Police sergeant Rob Cooke. Picture: Supplied

A POPULAR Tasmanian rural policeman feared he would lose the job he loved because of his mental ill-health, a coronial inquest has heard.

On Thursday the inquest heard opening statements on the circumstances surrounding the suicides of Sergeant Robert Cooke in 2020 and Constable Simon Darke in 2019.

Counsel assisting the coroner Cameron Lee said that cumulative stressors played a role in both cases.

Mr Lee said Mr Cooke, who died in October 2020, was passionate about his role as a policeman at Oatlands.

“He worked tirelessly as a police officer and a senior office bearer in the Police Association,” he said.

“It seemed he just loved being a frontline operational policeman.”

Funeral for Police Officer Robert Cooke at North Hobart. Picture Chris Kidd

Some years ago, Mr Cooke penned an opinion column in The Mercury talking about the highs and lows of life of a rural police officer.

“On a shift of five or six days, when you knock off, you don’t really knock off, because you can be called out again 20 minutes after getting home,” Mr Cooke wrote.

“All of the officers talk about how you don’t actually relax at home, because you are waiting for the phone to ring. When you go to bed, your sleep patterns are disturbed for the same reason.”

The inquest heard 2015 Mr Cooke began displaying symptoms of anxiety.

His marriage ended in 2016, in what was described as a “bitter separation”.

In April 2019 formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to cumulative exposure to traumatic situations, overwork and sleep deprivation.

The inquest heard Mr Cooke had been worried he would lose his frontline policing role because of his mental illness.

He was on a return to work plan at the time of his death.

Mr Cooke, 49, took his own life at his home in Campania on October 13.

Mr Lee said the inquest would examine Tasmania Police’s management of Mr Cooke’s workers’ compensation claim and return to work.

Simon Darke

In relation to Mr Darke, the inquest will look at the impacts of relationship breakdowns, child custody arrangements and long working hours.

The inquest heard that the death of Mr Darke, 45, was described by one friend as “out of the blue”.

“Mr Darke did not appear to have any real signifiant involvement in the professional standards unit of Tasmania police,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee said that on the evening before Mr Darke’s death on February 6, 2019, the constable had attended Bellerive Police station to work a night shift.

However the GPS tracker on his work car showed that early in the shift the Mr Darke left the station and returned home to Midway Point.

At 1.14am, after the police radio room had been unable to contact him, two police officers attended Mr Darke’s home.

“Sadly they have located Mr Dark deceased at the property,” Mr Lee said.

The ongoing inquest is also examining the suicides of Constable Paul Hunt and Senior Sergeant Paul Reynolds.

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Sergeant ‘crying for help’ amid four police suicides

A police veteran of 30 years has told a coronial inquest into the death by suicide of four officers between 2016–20 she has “lost trust in an organisation I once loved”.

Sgt Fiona Smith, Tasmania Police’s welfare co-ordinator between 2015–19, gave evidence in Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The inquest is examining the deaths of Constable Paul Hunt, Sen-Sgt Paul Reynolds, Constable Simon Darke and Sergeant Robert Cooke.

Sgt Smith told the inquest she was family friends with Constable Hunt, who died at his father’s Mount Direction property on July 8, 2016, the day he had a meeting with Professional Standards Command to tell him he was being stood down.

Constable Hunt was facing a number of allegations, including that he had been using his police badge to obtain pharmaceuticals.

Sgt Smith told the inquest Constable Hunt had depression, had a number of physical ailments and “felt like he was targeted” due to the rolling investigations.

Tasmania Police Sergeant Fiona Smith. Picture: Alex Treacy

“If you’re subject to an investigation you want it over and done with,” Sgt Smith said.

She said she had met the constable for coffee the morning of his death but would have delayed her meeting with him had she known he would be stood down later that day. Professional Standards also raided his locker and seized his mobile phone as part of their investigation.

Sgt Smith said she told her superior she “needed to be there” when Constable Hunt received news of his standing down to provide welfare, but that she was told she “wasn’t to go to the meeting... because it was a confidential conversation”.

She was unable to contact Const Hunt after the meeting as his phone had been seized. Later that afternoon, he was dead.

Under cross-examination, Sgt Smith conceded Constable Hunt would have been offered the presence of herself or the Police Association of Tasmania, but he declined.

Sgt Smith said when she started in the role, it was just her looking after the welfare of several organisations include Fire, SES and police, handling up to 120 cases at a time of various seriousness. She said her only training was a double-sided brochure.

She told the inquest that Tasmania Police now had “eight or nine” welfare officers doing the job she did alone.

Sgt Smith said she was given her marching orders from the role without warning in late-2019, news which left her “gutted”.

“I lost trust in an organisation I once loved. (The four suicides left a) physical and emotional toll. The department failed to support me when I continued to cry out for more help and more staff,” she said.

Sgt Smith also told the inquest about her interactions with Snr-Sgt Paul Reynolds, who was confronted by Professional Standards over allegations, substantiated after his September 13, 2018 suicide, he was a notorious paedophile.

Originally published as A coronial inquest heard about the deaths of Sergeant Robert Cooke and Constable Simon Darke