Coronial Inquests
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Coronial InquestS and Deaths in Custody
Western Australia
Coronial inquest into death of Late Cleveland Dodd
April 2024 – July 2025
Location: Coroner’s Court of Western Australia.
It took guards at WA’s notorious Unit 18 youth detention facility 16 minutes to check on Cleveland Dodd after the teenager warned them he would attempt to take his own life. Cleveland Dodd died on October 19 after being found unresponsive in his cell a week earlier at the notorious Unit 18 juvenile detention facility at Casuarina Prison. Cleveland is the first child to die in WA youth detention in the state’s history.
Queensland
Coronial inquest into disappearance of ‘Jayo’ Jeremiah Rivers
Brisbane: 27 November – 1 December 2023
Coronial inquest into death of Steve Nixon McKellar
Toowoombah: 11 – 15 September 2023
Steve Nixon McKellar was 27 years old when he died after having pressure applied to his neck, which was intended to be a lateral vascular neck restraint (LVNR). Nixon’s death led to the LVNR no-longer being an ‘approved’ use of force technique in Queensland, bringing it into line with every other Australian jurisdiction. The controversial chokehold was the same used by officers responsible for killing George Floyd, in the United States in 2020.
Coronial inquest into death of Aubrey Donahue
Date yet to be confirmed
Aubrey Donahue had been locked inside his family home in Mareeba for approximately 4 hours, before he was shot at close range by officers Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) officers, none of whom were wearing body-worn cameras at the time.
Coronial inquest into death of Trevor ‘Noombah’ King
Queensland: 2021
Noombah died after he was restrained by Queensland police officers who used force to detain him under an Emergency Examination Authority. He became unresponsive after Queensland Police Service officers applied a lateral vascular neck restraint (LVNR) after an extended struggle, but the extent of his clinical decline was not identified until after he was placed in the ambulance vehicle, which was over eight minutes after paramedics arrived on the scene.
