Family of Indigenous man who died after prison

incident call for coronial process overhaul

Wayne Morrison died at Royal Adelaide hospital on 26 September, three days after alleged altercation with
staff at Yatala prison
Calla Wahlquist
Thursday 20 October 2016 02.55EDT

The family of Indigenous man Wayne Fella Morrison who died following an incident at a South
Australian prison last month have called for a national overhaul of the coronial investigation
process and for the release of all CCTV footage related to deaths in custody.
Morrison, 29, died at Royal Adelaide hospital on 26 September, three days after an alleged
altercation with corrections sta at Adelaides Yatala prison left him braindead.
His sister, Latoya Aroha Rule, said her family were yet to receive any formal information from
police investigating the case and have not been shown the preliminary autopsy report, despite
requests from their lawyers.
If they were transparent it would be much easier to move on and think that justice would come
through the justice system, Rule told Guardian Australia.
All deaths in custody in Australia are subject to a public coronial inquest, but that can be a lengthy
process. It has already delayed Morrisons funeral by six weeks: his body was only released to his
family last week.
The lack of support for our family and the lack of information has even more so made us fearful
of corrections and police now because we dont know who we would go to for protection, we dont
know who we can trust, Rule said.
The rst Rule knew of her brothers injuries was a cryptic comment from a magistrate who had
been preparing to hear his application for bail.
It was 24 September, six days after Morrison was arrested, and he was due to appear via video
link. Rule and her mother were in the public gallery to support him.
Someone literally ran into the court with a note for the [magistrate] and said, we wont be able to
do it today, Rule said.
The judge said to us, we wont be able to do this today, you will have to call Yatala.
It took seven hours to conrm, through a third party, that Morrison had been taken to Royal
Adelaide hospital.

Rule said the lack of transparency made the loss of her brother, who she described as a gentle,
cultural man of Kokatha and Wiradjuri ancestry, even more dicult.
A comment by the states correctional services minister, Peter Malinauskas, denying any
conspiracies of any cover-up, has further muddied the waters.
We are not calling it a cover up I dont know where he got that from, but now its making us
think that, she said.
On Friday, Morrisons family will hold a rally outside parliament house in Adelaide supported by
Shaun Harris, whose niece Ms Dhu died in police custody in Western Australia in 2014, and
Joanne and Kirra Voller, whose son and brother Dylan Voller was hooded and tied to a chair in
images that prompted a royal commission into the Northern Territorys youth detention system.
All three families have become faces of the Black Lives Matter movement in Australia.
Like Dhu, who was arrested on a warrant of commitment for $3,622 in unpaid nes, Morrison had
not been in custody before.
He was a well-known sherman in the seaside Adelaide suburb of St Kilda. Rule said she had been
inundated since his death with messages of support from that community, including shing shop
owners who made memorials for the popular local.
We are going to take him back there to the place where he shed and scatter his ashes, she said.
The Department of Corrections in SA declined to comment on the case because it was subject to a
coronial inquiry, separate police investigations, and an internal department inquiry.
Until these investigations are complete, it is not appropriate for the Department to comment
further, a spokeswoman said.
More news

Topics
Indigenous Australians Australian police and policing Adelaide South Australia
Indigenous peoples
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