From: Trudy & Rod Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
National
5:31 pm AEST September 11 2000
Hanged teenage boy shouldn't have been jailed
AAP --
A 15-year-old boy who hanged himself in a Darwin detention centre need not
have been jailed under mandatory sentencing laws, a coroner was told today.
The suicide of the boy, whose name was suppressed for cultural reasons,
triggered a national backlash against the Northern Territory's mandatory
sentencing laws earlier this year.
The boy hanged himself with a bed sheet in the Don Dale Detention Centre on
February 10 - four days before he would have finished a 28-day sentence for
stealing stationery valued at $50.
It was his second 28-day term for theft and property offences, the
Alyangula Court House was told.
Lawyer John Lawrence, representing his family and the Angurungu Community
of Groote Eylandt, said a non-custodial sentence had never been discussed
during his court appearances despite legislation passed in August last year
which allowed for diversionary programs as an alternative to detention.
"He was sentenced with mandatory sentencing when he needn't have been," Mr
Lawrence told the court. The system let him down."
Mr Lawrence also questioned the conclusion of Don Dale's staff that the boy
had not shown signs that he was a risk to himself.
The boy, a former petrol sniffer, once told staff that he had attacked a
fellow detainee because voices told him to, the court was told.
He put his fingers in his ears and chanted and would lie on the floor
wailing, Mr Lawrence said.
Mr Lawrence said he was concerned that many of these incidents had not been
recorded by staff.
Counsellor assisting the coroner, Elizabeth Morris, said it was not clear
whether the boy had intended to kill himself.
He left a note that read: "I didn't want to die because I was too young.
"But now I'm growing up and I'll come soon to meet my people in heaven.
"Land be there anytime (sic)."
The inquest continues before coroner Dick Wallace.
--
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