Man’s death ‘not fully investigated’

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 13

Man’s death ‘not fully investigated’

PA Auckland The police failed to investigate fully the suspicious death of a man at Auckland’s Otahuhu police station, a lawyer said. The lawyer, Mr Hugh Murphy, was speaking for the family of Allan Thomas Gillespie'at an inquest into his death on May 9. Auckland’s Deputy Coroner, Mr Harry Israel, found the death was caused by self-inflicted hanging. He emphasised that the Coroner’s Court was not a court to determine culpability.

The Court was told at an earlier hearing that Gillespie was found hanging from a cell door with a white string around his neck.

Mr Murphy said there were suspicious circumstances which ought to have been properly investigated at the time but were not. But, he said, neither homicide nor suicide could be presumed. Mr Murphy listed “unanswered questions” including: , What was the force a constable used to get Gillespie into the cell? What was the commotion another prisoner heard — “the sound of someone getting a hiding?” Mr Murphy said police initially obstructed family inquiries. After Gillespie’s death the only statements taken from persons other than police were from two persons asleep at “the material time.” He said no-one from the police “has been able to tell us how the cord was put round the cell door . . .”

A representative of the Seamen’s Union, Mr Harry Scullion, told the Coroner that his members were

alarmed at the death of Mr Gillespie. “He was a member in good standing, respected and admired. We are mystified why he should want to end his life in this way.” Counsel for the police, Mr David Jones, said that only two police officers had keys to the cells. No-one used them between the time Mr Gillespie was locked up and when he was later found hanging. The police had been criticised but they had acted as best they could in the circumstances, Mr Jones said, and had tried to revive Gillespie. The Coroner said he did not want to comment on the police investigations into the death.

The case had all the hallmarks of spontaneity and there was no evidence of any others being involved in the death, he said.