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Lex Wotton, pictured at the Brisbane District Court a fortnight ago, with granddaughter Tianiwa. |
LEX WOTTON TRIAL: Palm Island uprising leader gets six years
Thursday, 30 October 2008
By Chris Graham
IN TOWNSVILLE
NATIONAL, November 7, 2008: Lex Wotton has been sentenced to six years behind bars with a two-year non parole period for his part in the 2004 uprising that saw the Palm Island police station, adjoining courthouse, a police residence and paddy wagon torched.
The father of four was sentenced moments ago in the Townsville District Court, before Judge Michael Shanahan. A large crowd of supporters and media gathered inside and outside the court to hear the sentence.
Mr Wotton will be eligible for parole on 18 July, 2010 due to time served, providing there is not a successful appeal by the Crown against the sentence.
The November 26, 2004 uprising followed the death in custody a week earlier of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Palm Island resident. Mulrunji was arrested on the morning of November 19, 2004 for 'public nuisance' by the island's officer-in-charge, Snr Sgt Chris Hurley.
Within an hour, he lay dead on the floor of a police cell, having suffered massive internal injuries.
Four of his ribs had been broken, his spleen had been ruptured, his portal view was torn and his liver was “almost cleaved in two”, according to a pathologist's report.
A week after the death, the residents were told at a public meeting that an autopsy report found the death was an accident, and that Mulrunji had tripped up a single step as he entered the police station, and fallen onto a flat surface.
Within about 15 minutes, an enraged mob had begun burning police buildings.
A subsequent investigation by the Acting State Coroner, Christine Clements revealed that Snr Sgt Hurley was responsible for the death, and that the Queensland Police investigation was “wilfully blind” and had been seriously compromised.
So far, almost two dozen Aboriginal people have been jailed over the uprising. Mr Wotton - convicted a fortnight ago of leading the resistance - is the final Palm Islander to be sentenced.
To this day, no police have even been disciplined for their part in the derailing of the investigation, despite the coroner's findings.
Snr Sgt Hurley was charged with manslaughter over the death and acquitted last year. Snr Sgt Hurley had maintained that he had fallen beside Mulrunji after a struggle, but by the end of his trial he accepted that he may have landed on top of him.
Detective Sergeant Darren Robinson, one of the police initially appointed to investigate the death, has also escaped sanction so far, despite clear evidence that lied under oath during the coronial inquest.
Det Sgt Robinson instead has been awarded the Medal of Valour for bravery during the Palm Island uprising.
• MORE TO FOLLOW THIS EVENING
* A NOTE TO OUR ONLINE
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