NT Coroner to examine Raylene Dick, David Hardy and Karen Bading deaths in custody in the Howard Springs quarantine facilities during covid

A two-week hearing to examine any institutional failings in the deaths of three people quarantining in Howard Springs.

The coroner has announced an investigation into the deaths of three people locked in Darwin’s quarantine facility during the covid pandemic.

A NT Courts spokesman has confirmed a two-week hearing will investigate the deaths of Raylene Dick, David Hardy and Karen Bading who all passed away at the Centre for National Resilience between November 21, 2021 to January 14, 2022.

All three deaths over the 54-day period are all classified as deaths in custody, with the hearing to begin on April 8 next year.

David Hardy was 77-years-old when he passed away on November 21, 2021, after reportedly drinking a whole bottle of vodka while locked in the dry health facility.

Fellow resident at the health facility Lucas Malasti told this publication the elderly man had just flown in from Singapore and drank the whole duty-free bottle of vodka in one go while in the Darwin centre.

“He skolled a bottle of vodka, went to his room and was stone dead the next morning,” Mr Malasti said.

David Hardy was 77-years-old when he passed away on November 21, 2021, after reportedly drinking a whole bottle of vodka while locked in the dry health facility. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL via NCA NewsWire

Raylene Dick passed away on December 7, 2021, with the then-Health minister Natasha Fyles saying at the time the 50-year-old woman’s death was not related to Covid.

Karen Bading also passed away at the quarantine facility on January 14, 2022 — just a month before her 47th birthday.

All three deaths in the quarantine facility occurred in the lead-up to the first wave of covid in Territory, which swelled to over 7,000 cases active cases by mid-February 2022.

Last year the former Territory coroner considered if the deaths of Mr Hardy and Ms Dick met the requirements of a ‘death in custody’ as unexpected deaths within a government facility — which are subject to a mandatory full public inquest.

It is understood the three deaths were not directly due to a Covid infection, but from unrelated issues which will be analysed in next year‘s coronial inquiry.

Last year the former Territory coroner considered if the deaths of Mr Hardy and Ms Dick met the requirements of a ‘death in custody’. Picture: Danielle Chloe

There were 56 recorded Covid deaths in the Territory, according to the chief health officer’s report into the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency.

“All of those who died in the Territory suffered from pre-existing chronic health conditions, or were advanced in age,” then acting chief health officer Charles Pain said in his September 2022 report.

Dr Pain said between March 2020 and June 2022 the quarantine facilities in Howard Springs and Alice Springs hosted 2228 people.

During that time more than 30 per cent of the NT population contracted Covid, with 74,874 officially recorded cases.

Dr Pain said between March 2020 and June 2022 the quarantine facilities in Howard Springs and Alice Springs hosted 2228 people. Picture: Che Chorley

The CHO report found that while Aboriginal Territorians were proportionally represented in the infection rate — with 28 per cent of all cases Indigenous — this community was over represented in fatality rates.

Nearly 60 per cent of all Covid deaths in the NT were Indigenous people, with 32 Aboriginal Territorians killed by the disease compared to 24 non-Indigenous people.

Dr Pain said this was a mortality rate 3.2 times higher among Aboriginal people than non-Indigenous Territorians.

The CHO report said the Territory had an overall mortality rate of 22.5 deaths per 100,000 people, which was below the national average and the mortality rates of Victoria, NSW and South Australia.

However the Territory’s major covid outbreak occurred almost two years after the disease first arrived in Australia, with the vaccine rollout starting 10 months before the first recorded death in the NT.

Originally published as NT Coroner to examine Raylene Dick, David Hardy and Karen Bading deaths in custody in the Howard Springs quarantine facilities during covid