An Australian state coroner investigating the death in custody of an Aboriginal man in Sydney said that it was horrific he had been shackled to his hospital bed in spite of being unconscious.
Eric Whittaker was 35 years old when he died in custody in July 2017 due to a brain injury and organ failure, the coroner found.
“The shackling of an unconscious man in hospital is horrific,” New South Wales coroner Teresa O’Sullivan, who headed the coronial inquest, said on Friday in her findings.
O’Sullivan also said Whittaker, a father of four children, should have received medical intervention earlier, calling the delay disgraceful.
According to the inquest’s findings, a distressed Whittaker had asked for help from his jail cell more than 20 times but it was three hours before he received medical attention.
Whittaker’s treatment and death have put the issue of the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody back in the spotlight.
According to a 2018 government health report, about 20 per cent of people who died in custody were Indigenous Australians.
Indigenous Australians make up 27 per cent of the prison population even though they are just 3 per cent of the country’s total population.
“The number of Aboriginal people dying in custody continues to be a national shame and a great concern to this Court,’’ O’Sullivan said.
“So many Indigenous families have felt a similar crushing pain on learning of the death of their loved one while they were in custody.’’
Leave a Reply