King, Michael --- "John Pat: an Update" [1990] AboriginalLawB 11; (1990) 1(43) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• John Pat-An Update

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John Pat - an Update

by Michael King

On 28 September, 1983 John Pat died in the police lock-up at Roebourne in Western Australia. Following an inquest conducted by Coroner David McCann, five police officers were committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia sitting at Karratha for the manslaughter of this young Aboriginal man.

In May, 1984 a white jury drawn from the mining town of Karratha acquitted the officers of the charge. No further action was taken in relation to the police officers by the State Government. However, private prosecutions were instituted by the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia on behalf of another Aboriginal person involved in the fight outside the Victoria Hotel prior to Pat's death. One of these charges was dismissed and the others were not proceeded with following the dismissal due to the granting of immunity certificates by the Magistrate hearing the case.

Since 1984 there has been a widespread feeling of disquiet in relation to the Pat case and 28 September has been regarded by many people as a day of remembrance of injustice.

The John Pat case was a key case leading to the setting up of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

On 5 March, 1990, Commissioner Elliott Johnston QC commenced the hearings in relation to the John Pat case in Roebourne.

The Roeboume community has been apprehensive about the hearing.

Family and other community members have not wished to have hearings at which witnesses were called and examined and cross-examined. They do not wish to reopen old wounds. Nevertheless they are hopeful that at the end of the Commission hearing a fording will be published as to the cause of John Pat's death. Despite the number of hearings that have already taken place concerning the death there has never been any published official determination as to its cause.

The Pat case is of massive proportions. There are over 12,000 pages of documents to be placed before the Royal Commission. An application by the police to suppress publication of the proceedings was refused by the Commissioner and the decision was upheld on appeal.

The resources made available to the Aboriginal Legal Service of W.A. to provide representation to the family have been extremely limited. Application to the Commonwealth Government for funding for Queens Counsel to represent the family, was refused. Of the twelve lawyers currently directly involved in the case, five (including one QC) represent individual police officers or the Union, one is Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission assisted by two instructing solicitors, one represents the State Government (on a watching brief), one represents the Committee to Defend Black Rights and two Counsels represent the family.

As at 22 March, 1990 the Royal Commission had sat for 13 days in relation to the case. It had heard evidence in relation to the so-called "McPhee incident". Thomas Albert McPhee is alleged to have informed a police officer at the Hotel in Shark Bay in 1985 of having seen John Pat involved in a fight outside Mr McPhee's house in Roebourne in which he was knocked to the ground some hours prior to the fight in which the deceased was involved at the Victoria Hotel. However, it was not until 1987 that Mr McPhee was formally interviewed by the police and a statement taken. McPhee's then wife Coralie was also said to be a witness in relation to the event as was William Henry Dawson.

Evidence has been taken from each of these witnesses as well as from police officers involved in the investigation and other people who were said to have been at the fight at the time.

However, Mr Dawson admitted in cross examination that John Pat had never been pointed out to him by name. Mr McPhee's oral evidence was to the effect that he could not positively identify Pat as being involved in the fight on the night and was only able to identify him as one of those involved in the fight when he heard about Pat's death on the television news the following evening. He also admitted that there was no photograph of the deceased in the television news. Mr Dawson conceded that he could not positively place the fight that he described to the Commission as occurring on the night on which John Pat died. Coralie McPhee stated that the light was so bad at the time that the fight occurred that Mr McPhee would have had to have had "a bionic eye" to have seen what he had described to the Royal Commission.

Among the issues to be examined by the Royal Commission in relation to this case are: what happened in the fight at the Victoria Hotel in which John Pat was involved; what happened at the lock-up prior to John Pat being placed in the cells; the nature and integrity of the police investigation following the death of Pat; the actual cause of death; and underlying issues.

Evidence is yet to be taken from senior police officers involved in the investigation, the present Commissioner of Police Brian Bull and the former Commissioner of Police John Porter, other civilian witnesses and of course the five police officers involved.

At present indication, the Commissioner will be due to provide his report to the State and Commonwealth by the end of September.

The decision to release the report into the death will of course rest with the Governments concerned. It is to be hoped that the governments will make the report public at the earliest possible opportunity. The widespread public interest in the case requires the publishing of the report to the public.