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Alleged Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton at Brisbane District Court earlier in the trial. The jury will retire to consider their verdict in the morning. Both the defence and the prosecution have completed their cases. |
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LEX WOTTON TRIAL: Defence and prosecution wrap up their cases
ISSUE 164 - 16 Oct 2008
By Chris Graham
BRISBANE
NATIONAL, October 22, 2008: The defence and the prosecution have completed their cases in the trial of accused Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton.
Mr Wotton is appearing in the Brisbane District Court, accused of rioting with destruction, a charge that carries a sentence of up to life in prison if he is convicted.
The November 26, 2004 Palm Island uprising saw the local police station, courthouse, and a residence in the police barracks burnt to the ground.
It followed the death in custody a week earlier of Mulrunji Doomadgee, an
Aboriginal man who had never been in trouble on the island before.
Mulrunji was walking home on the morning of November 19 when he was arrested
by the highest ranking officer on the island, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley.
Mulrunji was lying dead in a police cell within the hour.
In a subsequent report into the death, Acting State Coroner Christine
Clements described the arrest of Mulrunji as "completely unjustified". She noted his injuries were so severe (his liver had almost been "cleaved in two) that if medical staff had been immediately available when Snr Sgt Hurley assaulted him, Mulrunji would still have died.
The defence has alleged that a succession of police witnesses in the trial – 10 in all – fabricated various parts of their evidence.
The defence has relied on the fact that none of the video footage of the riot available – filmed by local residents, a freelance cameraman and a police officer – shows Lex Wotton doing any of the destructive crimes police allege.
Instead, the defence contends, the police have had to rely on statements by officers present on the island to mount a case against Mr Wotton.
Defence barrister Clive Steirn SC told the court this morning that Mr Wotton was trying to calm the situation on the island, as the police station, courthouse and a police residence were torched.
He urged the jury to weigh up the “objective evidence” which “demonstrates the falsity of the police evidence”.
“What is frightening is that police witness after police witness gives fabricated evidence that sends a man to jail…” Mr Steirn said.
He particularly honed in on the evidence of Det Sgt Darren Robinson, the Palm Island officer who had admitted while on the stand to lying in an investigation that exonerated friend Chris Hurley of running over an Aboriginal woman, despite two independent witnesses and medical evidence which showed the incident occurred.
But prosecutor Michael Cowen told the court police on Palm Island showed professionalism, courtesy and respect, and in particular restraint.
He said the theory that police were involved in some grand conspiracy was wrong, and unsupported by the evidence.
“If [police have] all got their heads together, then they’ve done a shocking job of it,” Mr Cowen said, noting that there were some small inconsistencies in police evidence, but that they came about as a result of different police seeing different things at different times.
Mr Cowen also urged the jury to aside notions of race.
“This case is not a black and white case. It’s not about race. I invite you to put colour completely out of your mind,” he said.
Mr Cowen said the case was about a riotous assembly of people attacking police who were simply doing their job.
“Lex Patrick Wotton could not burn (down the police station) by himself. H needed the mob.”
“The other people he used had a joint intention to attack the police… and it’s as simple as that.”
Judge Michael Shanahan will begin summing up the case this afternoon, and directing the jury. They will retire to consider their verdict in the morning.
• NIT will have an update on all the proceedings from today later tonight.
 
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