Police work under inquest spotlight
POLICE did not initially investigate the possibility that two men who fled from officers to avoid arrest during monsoonal floods had been washed down a storm drain.
Officers were aware of the possibility the men might have drowned, but operated on the assumption they successfully ran from police instead.
Troy Mathieson, 23, and Hughie Morton, 21, died in floodwaters after they attempted to break into a Dan Murphy’s liquor store early in the morning of February 4, 2019 during monsoonal flooding which devastated the city.
A coronial inquest began in Townsville on Tuesday probing the circumstances
surrounding their deaths with the actions of police under the spotlight.
Multiple officers gave evidence on the first day of the inquest saying they assumed the men successfully escaped from responding crews and had crossed the creek or used a metal fence to climb out.
Senior Constable Warren Davies was part of a team of officers who responded to the attempted break-in and told the court the men were being “treated as suspects” after he witnessed them enter floodwaters.
“That’s what we were investigating at the time, was the break (and enter), and then once they’ve entered the water they were still being treated as suspects,” he said.
“I thought that they were heading towards dry ground.”
Senior Constable Simon Wylie was also part of the team who responded to the Dan Murphy’s and said he advised a more senior officer, District Duty Officer Senior Sergeant Matheson, that there was a possibility two men who had disappeared had “succumbed” to the floodwaters.
Troy and Hughie’s bodies were found a day later on February 5 after waters receded in a stormwater drain near the Aitkenvale library connected to the culvert behind Dan Murphy’s.
Despite Constable Wylie’s evidence that police were aware of the possibility the men had drowned, Constable Warren told the court he was “not aware” police had followed up about the drain until the next day when he and
other officers attended near the library. One of the inquest’s key aims is to determine if the outcome might have changed if police categorised the pair as missing – instead of wanted.
Sergeant Matheson said at the time police were not actively searching for, or arresting wanted persons due to the “overwhelming” demand for emergency services during the flood emergency.
He told the court there were an estimated 300 priority-two jobs on the system as police across the region attended evacuations, flood response, anti-looting patrols and domestic violence calls.
When asked if classifying Troy and Hughie as missing would have changed the outcome, Sergeant Matheson said he did not believe so and
described the difference between the two classifications as “semantics”.
Sergeant Matheson said he did not believe responding police could have done anything more to save the two men’s lives.
“It was too dark to do anything. If they did enter the drains there was nothing that they could do,” he said.
Family and friends of the two young men crowded into the courtroom on Tuesday with supporters donning shirts celebrating the memory of their loved ones.
The inquest will continue on Wednesday with senior police and a stormwater management expert due to give evidence as the proceedings probe if grates on drain systems might prevent similar deaths.