An Aboriginal mum to five children was locked in a prison cell. She died behind bars two days later. Here’s what the cops refuse to tell us.
On Christmas Day, 44-year-old Kumanjaiyi Dempsey was involved in a domestic violence assault at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
A source with insight into her death confirms she was misidentified as the perpetrator of violence.
Kumanjaiyi was the victim. She needed protection from her violent partner.
Instead, police locked Kumanjaiyi up.
Cops claim Kumanjaiyi died as a result of a medical condition on December 27.
It’s clear she should never have been locked up.
Kumanjaiyi suffered rheumatic heart disease. It is not yet known if this disease led to her death.
NT police said she fell to the ground after a routine cell check – and she was discovered during the next check almost half an hour later. Her fall was captured on CCTV.
They said she did not disclose this during a medical assessment – not surprising given she was recovering from domestic violence and would have been extremely distressed at being named the perpetrator and being taken away from her children.
The pathologist is yet to receive results of toxicology testing to confirm Kumanjaiyi’s cause of death.
Every day across the country, police mis-identify domestic violence victims as perpetrators. Often this leads to much worse outcomes for the women involved. In some cases they end up with criminal histories. In other cases, the perpetrator kills the women.
In this case, the police decision-making meant this woman died alone, in a stark and cold prison cell away from her children, her community and her country.
But the cops won’t tell you any of this. Just like they’re not telling you about the chance they had to save another Aboriginal woman’s life but didn’t.
A 27-year-old woman was allegedly murdered by her partner at Boroolooa on December 6, not long after disclosing to medical staff and his community corrections officer that she was in danger.
The health service and the community corrections officer followed mandatory reporting procedures, but the NT Police officer assigned to the report simply closed it without further investigation.
She was killed a short time later.
Her partner had just been released from jail for previous assaults on the 27-year-old so the cops knew there was a major risk to her life.
As a reminder of how bad policing of domestic violence is in the Territory, the NT Police refused to properly investigate multiple allegations of violence by a serving officer. Holly Anne Davidson died in suspicious circumstances after years of abuse at the hand of her partner Matthew Kevin Lea-Smith. He refused to give evidence at her inquest as he might ‘incriminate himself’.
There’s been no move to remove him from the force or to charge him for the abuse or her death. He remains on paid sick leave!
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