Widow Claims Police Murdered Husband

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30310, 10 December 1963, Page 17

Widow Claims Police Murdered Husband

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright)

MELBOURNE, December 9.

The 21-year-old widow of a labourer believed that her husband had been murdered by police, a lawyer said in the Melbourne Coroner’s Court today.

The lawyer, Mr Frank Galbally, was appearing for the widow at an inquest on the labourer, who died a month after he was taken to hospital from a police station.

Another lawyer, appearing on behalf of all police concerned, said that a departmental inquiry had completely exonerated the police. The City Coroner, Mr H. Pascoe, S.M., was beginning a two-day inquest in which 38 witnesses will give evidence on Clifford Dudley O’Sullivan, married, with one child, of Richmond. O’Sullivan was arrested on October 5 and charged at the Richmond police station with assault, assault by kicking, assault on a policeman, re-

sisting arrest and indecent language. He was later taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he died on November 6. Mr Galbally, appearing today for Mrs Kaye Frances O’Sullivan, said that before O’Sullivan died he had made a complaint to the Chief Commissioner of Police, on the instructions of O’Sullivan and his wife, that O’Sullivan had been assaulted at Richmond by police. Mr Galbally said it was Mrs O’Sullivan’s belief that her husband was murdered by police in the Richmond police station. “Police Exonerated” For the Police Association, Mr Ray Dunn said senior police members made exhaustive inquiries which had completely exonerated the policemen concerned. Mr A. E. Woodward, assisting the Coroner, said that the evidence would primarily concern Saturday, October 5, when O’Sullivan was involved in a street brawl, first with the conductor of a tram and subsequently with an off-duty policeman, Constable Harvey Richardson Haig, of St. Kilda. After the brawl, which Haig would say was a very serious one, and in which he found it necessary to use a great deal of force on O’Sullivan, O’Sullivan had been taken to the Richmond police station. The first matter the Coroner would have to determine was whether the degree of force used by Haig was justified in the circumstances. The first witness, John James O’Sullivan, a sheet metal worker, of Broad-

meadows, said that he had a few words with his son at St. Vincent’s Hospital on October 8. "I asked him: ‘Who done it?’ He said ‘the police’,’’ witness said. His son had talked in a hoarse whisper. That was the only time he had seen him conscious before he died. To Mr Dunn, O’Sullivan said his son had made no mention of having received injuries in a brawl before the police arrived. Medical Evidence

Dr. Paul O’Hanlon told the Court he had seen O’Sullivan in hospital on the evening of October 5 and O’Sullivan had complained only of a mild general abdominal pain. Dr. Kevin Rickard said ie had seen O’Sullivan on the following Monday. O'Sullivan had had a major abdominal operation on Saturday night and it was found there had been a tearing of veins and arteries. A fairly severe force would have been needed to cause the damage. John Paul Kelly, a tram conductor, said he had been attacked at the Richmond tram terminus on October 5 by three men including O’Sullivan and he had later seen O’Sullivan taken into the sub-officers’ room at the Richmond police station. He said he had heard someone call out “He’s gone” and someone had run past the window of his room. He had later seen O’Sullivan taken to a cell. He had not heard anything that would indicate blows were struck. Roderick Charles Aitken, a tram driver, of "hornbury. said he saw Haig fighting O'Sullivan. The constable had waved his baton at Sullivan, then hit him in the ribs. The constable had also struck O’Sullivan with his fist. It was a very violent brawl.

Dr. James Henry McNamara, the senior Government pathologist, who made a post-mortem examination of O’Sullivan, said O’Sullivan’s injuries could have been caused by a knee driven hard into the stomach. O’Sullivan’s injuries could have been aggravated by him jumping out of a window and running.