‘Cowboy stuff with no rules’: Zachary Rolfe text messages revealed

The outback police officer cleared of all charges over the 2019 death of Aboriginal man Kumanjayi Walker once described his job as a “sweet gig” because you “just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules”.

The text messages were kept from the Supreme Court jury, but can now be published after a consortium of media outlets, including this one, successfully applied to lift all suppression orders relating to the case.

Zachary Rolfe flanked on his right by defence barrister David Edwardson, QC, leaving court last week after being acquitted of all charges. Credit: AAP

“Alice Springs sucks ha ha. The good thing is it’s like the Wild West and f--- all the rules in the job really ... but it’s a shit hole,” Constable Zachary Rolfe wrote in one message to an old Army friend.

“Good to start here coz of the volume of work but will be good to leave.”

In another message contained in the trove, he wrote: “We have this small team in Alice, IRT, immediate response team. We’re not full time, just get called up from [general duties] for high risk jobs, it’s a sweet gig, just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules.”

Despite the prosecution’s efforts throughout the pre-trial hearings, the messages were deemed inadmissable.

Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland, SC.Credit: Krystle Wright

Defence barrister David Edwardson, QC, had no issues with lifting the majority of the 26 non-publication orders, but sought to keep suppressions over the text messages and also allegations aired about Constable Rolfe’s conduct during several earlier arrests.

The prosecution wanted to bring details about these arrests to the murder trial because it believed they presented the “tendency” for Constable Rolfe to use excessive force and to make false statements in justification.

In one of those arrests, about eight months before the shooting of Mr Walker, the prosecution alleged Constable Rolfe chased a 17-year-old Aboriginal teen in Alice Springs. When the target stopped running and placed himself on the ground, Constable Rolfe is alleged to have banged the boy’s head several times into a rock, causing a cut requiring four sutures.

The prosecution claimed Constable Rolfe falsely stated the cut must have occurred when the boy dived on the ground.

Zachary Rolfe (right) was acquitted of all charges related to the death of Kumanjayi Walker, whose photo is used courtesy of his family.

In another arrest, the prosecution accused the officer of knocking out a man and later requesting a detective to scratch his face to justify excessive use of force.

Justice John Burns, who later presided over the trial, ruled in December last year the tendency evidence could not be presented because it would have consumed copious time and risked diverting the jury from its main task, which was to consider the shooting of Mr Walker.

On Friday, Mr Edwardson argued these allegations had not been proven and should remain suppressed from publication.

Justice Burns said allowing the public to scrutinise the decisions of the court trumped any potential embarrassment the information would cause the policeman.

Constable Rolfe, a decorated officer and top of his 2016 recruit class, was on a mission with the Immediate Response Team when he came face-to-face Mr Walker, who was wanted for arrest, inside a Yuendumu home.

He shot Mr Walker after the latter stabbed him in the shoulder during a chaotic attempt at arrest. This round was not the subject of any charges.

The officer fired twice more while Mr Walker and another constable wrestled on a mattress. The Crown prosecution, who sought to paint Constable Rolfe and the IRT as “gung ho” and neglectful of their training, claimed these shots amounted to murder, or at least violence causing death.

The 12-person Darwin jury, which contained no Aboriginal members, determined Constable Rolfe’s actions were legally justified in the circumstances.