The coroner probing WA's first recorded death in juvenile detention tells the Justice Department it looks like it 'doesn't want an exploration' of evidence about the demographics of young people sent to the notorious Unit 18.
Coroner Philip Urquhart has told the Justice Department it looks like it "doesn't want an exploration" of evidence about the demographics of young people sent to the notorious Unit 18 .
Coroner Philip Urquhart is holding an inquest into the 2023 death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd a week after self-harming inside his cell in Unit 18 — the youth detention facility created inside Casuarina Prison in just nine days.Sacked corrective services boss lifts lid on troubled youth detention system
State Solicitor's Office lawyer David Leigh, representing the department, said that was because recent research had changed the department's understanding of the Coroner's powers.Counsel Assisting the Coroner Anthony Crocker told the inquest the genesis of the report was information the department had itself provided to the inquest.
Mr Urquhart then asked Mr Leigh how the decision to now argue that report was inadmissible might be interpreted."It looks like the department doesn't want an exploration of this particular issue, that's the impression that appears to me," the coroner said. "That is the outcome of your submissions to me that the Coroners Act should be narrowly interpreted and inconsistent with the interpretation that the court has applied to that Act since its inception," Coroner Urquhart said.Earlier, Mr Leigh had argued any coronial inquest could only focus on "the cause or circumstances" of a person's death.
Mr Leigh said the application had been brought as soon as the department became aware of the potential new interpretation of the law.Coronial investigations into the death of someone in the care of the state, including deaths in custody, legally require a coroner to comment on the "quality of the supervision, treatment and care" of the deceased.
Wa Pols Wa Politics Wa News Cleveland Dodd Coronial Inquest Coroner Philip Urquhart Department Of Justice Wa Juvenile Detention Banksia Hill Unit 18
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