Police Failure while Mob Rally

is important. We could have chosen to expand a correctional facility in the southeast of our state, but we know the regions need the jobs and they need these construction jobs now. I have asked the Minister for Corrective Services, Mark Ryan, to bring forward construction on this project to start this year. He is going to pull out all stops to ensure that we can hit the ground running when it comes to this project.

up one more person. And I think that's a pretty appalling state of affairs when a government is looking to sell a job's package to a regional community, but the end result is that the exact same number of people will end up in prison. Now, the prison is slightly over capacity at the moment, but we know there's people like Kevin Henry, who simply don't belong in that prison. And I'm sure there's others who either have not had their parole granted when they should have, who are perhaps

on remand when they shouldn't be. So we've had no look at why the prison is overpopulated at present. Instead, they're just going to add on new cells. And when you add one hundred and sixty four new cells, you better believe the aim will be to fill them. And I think that is deeply problematic. That jails don't sit empty. They're generally always overcrowded if they're new, and so the concern is will judges in the area start sending people to prison who have no place in the prison system.

showering facilities at the prison itself. We had a lot of issues and there's been no attempt to address that a quarter of a century ago, and so rather than address the underlying problems, we're just going back to an issue of expanding the prisons. And I think we only need to look America as to what happens when you build bigger prisons, you end up with the biggest prison population on Earth.

One thing we know for sure comparing Australia and America is that minorities, those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and are disadvantaged. And in Australia that is absolutely Aboriginal people will always be overrepresented in the prison population. So it's fair to say that with one hundred and sixty four new cells being created, at least eighty of those people will be Aboriginal people. And right now we have to remember that these are people who have not yet committed a crime.

So if they're to commit a crime, it's maybe a very small offense. The pressure will beyond judges to fill these cells. Now people will say, well, no, judges will do the right thing, and we heard the premiere announce that it'll be up to the judges as to where they send people, but we know that's just not how

it works. And we see in America where judges across the country were under quite severe pressure to fill the jails as fast as possible because those jobs, those one hundred and seventy jobs that are supposedly being created, they don't exist unless there's people too secure. A prison is much like a hotel, but it's got one hundred percent occupancy, and those jobs exist because there's people inside who need cooking for, cleaning for, and predominantly guarding. So I think

this is a very worrying development. And again, as you opened with, it goes back to the issue that twenty five years later, no attempt is being made to rectify any of the problems that exist. In fact, they've all been ignored to make some money and sell what is obviously an election pitch to the people of Rockhampton, which is one hundred and seventy jobs, without a single mention of the damage it'll do to the area.

mean that Kevin will spend further time in prison. And I think connecting it back to the issue of what's happening at Rockhampton Prison is that one of the reasons there is overcrowding is there's people who are not getting parole who have served their full sentence. And Kevin Henry is one of those people that he has served his

entire sentence. And remember that's despite the fact I'll personally say that I don't believe he committed the crime, and he maintains his innocence twenty five years later, and yet he could face the prospect of spending even further than what the judge sentenced him to a longer period, and I think this is just unacceptable. But we'll wait and see and hear what that decision is.

parole boat to grant that release. So Kevin's life is effectively in the hands of the parole board and until they give the green light that he is to be released, then he can continue to serve time that far exceeds

what the judge initially handed down at the trial. I think that should be concerning to everyone in the community, a that there is a misunderstanding that once you've done the crime, you're released, but also that parole is dependent on a board of people who we don't know a lot about, where the ability for someone to challenge any decision is quite limited and often depends on the resources

available to that person. And if you've been in prison for twenty five years, the reality is you have access to virtually no resources and more than likely nothing, and so you're at the whim of those who would assist

you in trying to get parrale. Now, if you're from a more well off family or from a higher level of society, then that becomes much easier, But particularly for the Aboriginal community, I think we're seeing a lot of Indigenous prisoners serve longer than they should, whether they did or didn't do the crime, purely because their ability to file applications for parole and challenge any negative decisions is very, very limited, and I don't think there's any justice in that.

found guilty based on the evidence presented. And I think that's pretty obvious given that no forensic evidence was presented against Kevin that links him to the crime. So I guess that leads us to the big question that a lot of people are asking, which is that if Kevin didn't do the crime, who did.

a statement from this individual, Willy West. But I think what's most important about his name is that the four defense attorneys were very clear to honing on him in particular and other names, but to raise the name of Willy West as to why police hadn't investigated him. Further, we know that all the other people who were down at Tanuba that night gave statements, almost all of them gave multiple statements. Many of them were called and testified

in Kevin's trial. But this name Willy West continued to come up, and I think the answers the police gave as well lead to a lot of concern as to why he wasn't spoken to. He was drinking with duck

Hart that day. It's believed he was there later on in the evening, So this was someone coming and going from Tanuba, and unlike everyone else, there doesn't seem to be any accounting for his movements that day, and there seems to be no effort on the police's behalf to trace his movements, even if it was simply to rule

him out. I think that's one thing that I'm personally very critical of the police in this matter, for is you have thirty or so people who were at Tanuba, you had a number of people coming and going, and

you had the people at the camp further up. Now, those names were all known to police, and a proper investigation would go through those names one by one and rule them out, whether that person have an hour by whether there was any evidence linking them to the crime, whether their name had come up in other statements as

to what people saw. But despite the fact that Willie West's name came up, and it came up quite forcefully at the trial, with the defense lawyers pushing his name, police had made no effort at all to ascertain who he was, what he was up to that day, and if he was involved. And if they had done that, they certainly weren't mentioning it at trial. So either they didn't, and that would be negligent or they did look into Willy West and for whatever reason, chose not to give those answers a trial.

going to change his statement. But we don't know if others did. So many of the witness statements. In the initial statements individuals gave. Many of those people didn't even mention Kevin, and if they did, it was just to

say he was there. Now, when they gave their second statements, third and fourth and fifth statements after Kevin had been charged, suddenly a number of them, only a couple, particularly the co accused, launched into the fact that somehow even may have been involved or mentioning Kevin's name, at least more than they had previously. So what we'll never know is what did these people say about Willie West in their initial statements? In fact, what did they say about other people?

Because there's a number of other people who didn't have alibis who were raised as potential suspects. We know of an individual who a lawyer went to police saying that their client had confessed, and these individuals just weren't followed up on. But again, we just don't know what was in those early statements given by witnesses because the police were very keen to focus in what they knew and saw about Kevin Henry and nothing else.

of these leads. It just seems very strange.

and that turned out not to be correct. But for whatever reason, the police, by their own admission in court under oath, state that from the day they arrested and charged Kevin on the fifth of September, before an official cause of death had been returned from the forensic scientists, they focused on Kevin and no one else. And I think whatever their motive was for picking Kevin out, everything from that from then on in their investigation is tainted

by the fact their eyes were closed. They were purely searching for information that would link Kevin to the crime and nothing else, which means missing all the evidence that could have potentially pointed to other people. And what we know they uncovered about Kevin is absolutely nothing. And part of that is because they charged him before the cause of death came back, so not a single shred of

forensic evidence points to Kevin Henry. And when you've got your blinkers on as investigating officers and you've chosen one person to focus on, not only do you get it wrong because you're missing everything else that's going on around you. The very person you've targeted, if they are innocent. The result will be that you do not find anything, which

is exactly what happened with Kevin. And that meant that much of the information that related to other individuals who should have been or worse suspects early on was completely missed, was never followed up on, and it gave time for people to get their story straight, to leave town under the blanket of protection provided by the police who'd failed in their duty to investigate this thoroughly. And I think not only was an injustice committed against Kevin Henry, but

that Linda had every right to justice. As an Aboriginal woman, she was the most vulnerable person in society at the time. An Aboriginal women remained the most vulnerable people in our society today, and yet the police made no effort to investigate thoroughly. All they did was pick one individual out and leave out any of these other people. So all

these names that our listeners are asking us about. When our listeners say, if Kevin didn't do it, who, I think we have to start with the question of why did Linda not get justice? And that's because the police didn't do their job. And who are these other people? And why don't we know more? And again that is because the police didn't investigate properly, and that's why we don't know more about them. But we can say that we've been looking as who these people are and we'll

be able to reveal more in the future. But I hope that begins to answer for our listeners as to why there is some confusion, and that it's actually okay to be confused by these names because the clarity should have been provided by the police. And if you are confused about all these names that have been raised, then your disgruntlement should be with those investigating officers who could ruled these people in or out but didn't do their job.

suspicion about the motives and actions of police. We also know that it's not an Aboriginal person in Australia who hasn't had either bad dealings personally with the police themselves or someone in their family or circle of friends, and that further creates that ill trust. And we know for a fact, and it came out twenty five odd years ago from the Royal Commission into Black Debts in custody.

It's come out subsequently in media investigations that there is a very good reason why Aboriginal people have this deep mistrust of the police, is that in so many cases, the wrong people have been imprisoned, people have been killed at the hands of police, and no one's ever been held accountable, and that people have been questioned in more

than an inappropriate fashion by police. I think it's no stretch to say there's been a lot of plaints and also just a lot of discussion around the fact that people are often roughed up, people are often accused of committing crimes they simply didn't do. People are taken the long way back to the police station, threatened, and all sorts of things that is really not what the majority

of the community face from the police. I think if you've ever been pulled over for a speeding ticket or something similar and felt like you've been given a hard time, multiply that by a minion and you start to get an idea of what the Indigenous community goes through. So I think a lot of our Indigenous listeners around the country will be not just disappointed and skeptical of the fact that the police did a poor job, but also

wondering if there was more to it than that. And I think that's been the feedback as well from the legal fraternity is that names were presented to the officers investigating, and by their own admission, they chose not to follow

them up. Now I'll mention the name duck Hart again, and it's not a name I want to stress too much other than the fact it's very revealing to the police investigation, which is that when Officer Gurk was presented with the fact that Duckhart's alibi simply didn't check out, the way he investigated that fact was simply to ask duck about his alibia. Now that's not investigative work. You don't simply ask someone to confirm if their alibi is or isen true when holes have been punched in it.

Now duck confirmed his alibim which other state were not true, and in the words of the officer, that was good enough. So I think people have a right to be suspicious as to whether police were doing their job. We also know that it wasn't just the people of Tanuba who were raising concerns. The local legal fraternity were. In fact, as we've mentioned a number of times, a local lawyer went to police and set a client of his confess to the crime. That individual was never interviewed, was never

looked into, and was never examined in any way. Now, that might just be sloppy police work, but I think you could certainly forgive people for raising serious concerns and questioning whether something darker was going on at the time that here you had a murder of a woman whose body was put into a river. A lawyer comes to the investigating officers and says, my client says he did

the crime, and that person is never spoken to. Now, that's some of the worst police work you'll ever hear of, or something worse is going on, and I can certainly understand why so many of our listeners are coming to that conclusion. And the police only have themselves to blame if they feel that their names are being sullied. They simply should have done their job and they didn't.

to Kevin Henry's case, Mardin. What has actually been the feedback, particularly from the Aboriginal community just recently, Well, I think.

those who assisted in that. We also had statements read in Brisbane and at other protests around the country in support of Kevin Henry and the community using this day of protest and using this day that highlights the injustice more than two hundred years of genocide, mass incarceration, theft of land, children being removed from their families, stripped away from their families, that the community on their own back

chose to highlight the case of Kevin Henry. And I think Kevin's case, like a number of others like Dylan Volors, I think highlights the general concern and it's a real concern that a huge number of Indigenous people are in prison who are innocent, who shouldn't be there, and the community is clearly rallying behind Kevin, and we saw that with the speeches that were made on Kevin's Behalf, the banners that were flown, and the curtain the podcast banner that was raised on the day.

And if our listeners want to see those photos up on our Facebook page and you'll be able to see what a lot of Aboriginal more particularly in Queensland, are starting to rise up in support of Kevin Henry because they feel that a grave injustice has happened up here and they want to get behind it and support him. So I think it was really really good to see that happening.

linking Kevin to the crime. It's that all Indigenous people have had this experience and have had to battle the legal system and with a deep and traumatic understanding of being the most imprisoned people on the face of the earth. And so I think to see that commitment, that passion, it was a beautiful thing to see. There was far more Aboriginal people and Torres Straight Island to people out on that day than there was anyone celebrating Australia Day.

And I think we saw a real changing, I hope, in the history of that day, where it really was a day that highlighted the injustices that have gone on and as Kevin's case highlights an injustice that continues. And I think once again we can only be really proud of all the mob that marched that day and what they did and said.