Lex Wotton
Nearly ten years lost to the injustices of a dogged rule of law bent and twisted to support the institutions of the State, Lex Wotton has finally had the chance to have his say about what happened following the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee. Instead of police arresting the officer who beat Mulrunji to death, Mr Wotton was arrested the night following the Palm Island police station burning.
Mr Wotton has spoken about the years lost and about his faith that justice can still be found even in an “unjust world, even in a corrupt society.” He believes that one day Mr Hurley, the Queensland Police and the Queensland Government will be held to true account.
Following the death of Mulrunji, police did not arrest Mr Hurley but damn did they demonstrate a ferocity of will to get Mr Wotton without any flicker of delay. The injustices smack of the worst of yes racism but also the worst of nepotism.
In the aftermath of the death of Mulrunji, Palm Islanders stormed the police station, the community was angry, and in the riot the police station was burned down. Mr Wotton had gone to the police station to express his outrage but he neither incited the riot nor had he any hand in it being burned down. Indeed there is evidence that he was trying to quell some of the community’s outrage.
But Mr Wotton was accused of inciting the riot. The politically motivated incarceration was intended as a message to Palm Islanders – that there would be no justice for them to continue to seek. This is the bare knuckles of it all.
After two years in prison, Mr Wotton’s parole came with 22 conditions, one of which included a gag-order. So much for the lie of democracy.
On the night of the riot, as the police station smouldered, police arrived in militia-like force and numbers at Mr Wotton’s home.
“I knew they would come. I was watching the telly, was watching it all night. Just before the police would come I had put on some tea. I was having it when they did come. I was in my shorts when I saw the lights.”
“When I saw the lights I went out the front of the house. I just walked out. They just started to surround me and the house.”
“They told me to get on my knees.”
“Because I did not do that, they Tasered me,” said Mr Wotton.
“Then they ordered an anti-terrorist group into my home and surrounded my family, pointing guns at all of them.”
Mr Wotton was bundled away. The family and the community were shell shocked.
Mr Wotton said that he has never done anything wrong.
“I do not regret anything, the eye must be kept on the ball and that was the murder (of Mulrunji).”
“I just went to the police station to express my outrage and that was the right thing to do, to correct a wrong.”
Mr Wotton said that the fact Mr Hurley got away with the death of Mulrunji has ensured distrust of police and Government on the Island. He said that there remain tensions between police and locals though he can both have a civil conversation and work with the local police commander.
Mr Wotton is working with the local police commander in enabling programs to reduce domestic violence. The program works in conjunction with the Island’s rugby league team – the Barracudas. Players and team personnel who commit any form of domestic violence will be suspended from playing and participating for a period of time.
Currently, Mr Wotton is part of a Palm Island legal class action through the litigation and human rights specialists Levitt Robinson. The action is led by Mr Wotton, his partner and his mother, charging the Queensland Police Commissioner and the Queensland Government for racial vilification for their handling of the Mulrunji death and the Palm Island riot.
Mr Wotton said the police anti-terrorist group should not have stormed his family’s home.
“I was already in their custody, so they had no reason to do what they did.”
“They pointed guns to the children, to their heads, they ordered them to get on the floor. These are children,” said Mr Wotton.
The class action follows ten years of legal battles but with no justice. Inquiries seemed to suggest criminal actions by Senior Sergeant Hurley but did not lead to a prosecution. In 2006, the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions said there was not enough evidence to put Mr Hurley on trial – despite the multiple injuries that could only have been caused by a beating.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie called on the Attorney-General to review the file and in 2007 Mr Hurley was put on trial – for manslaughter.
He was found not guilty. And so there remains no successful prosecution of a police officer in this nation of having any unnatural hand in the death of a detainee.
Despite more inquiries and a 2010 Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission suggesting the police investigations into Mulrunji’s death had been flawed and that police may have in effect colluded, nothing has come of them.
But there was somehow enough evidence to sentence and then gag Mr Wotton.
It was not Mr Wotton who incited the Palm Island riot.
It was Mr Hurley.
I was working in Townsville when this incident occurred. I called the head of Child Safety in Townsville that day. I asked the Question why police pointed guns at children in the raid. I stated that if that was a black man pointing a gun at children they would be charged with going armed to cause fear. Those children have suffered a traumatic event and was not given any assistance. Those children need to be compensated for the trauma that was caused by the Qld State Police and Qld Government.