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AUS: Queensland teen's death may end in police charges

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
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Nov 3, 1999
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The death of a Gold Coast teenager from a drug overdose in 2015 could lead to charges against police officers who attended the scene.

Coroner Terry Ryan delivered his findings at Southport Courthouse on Thursday into the death of 19-year-old Charlie Robertson at his Miami apartment in June 2015.

Mr Ryan found Mr Robertson's death was preventable and said police had "acted inappropriately and incompetently" in their care for the young man.

Mr Robertson was unconscious in his bedroom when seven officers from the Gold Coast's Rapid Action Patrol raided the property, looking for one of his flatmates.

Despite being unable to wake Mr Robertson, the officers left without providing him with medical assistance despite the presence of paramedics at the property, the inquest heard.

The inquest found Mr Roberston would "very likely" have survived had he received treatment.

"I consider that the attending police officers who witnessed Charlie's condition acted inappropriately and incompetently with respect to his presentation," Mr Ryan said.

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Mr Ryan added evidence given at the inquest that officers lifting a mattress the unconscious Mr Robertson was lying on was "inappropriate" while laughter heard from officers when Mr Robertson fell from the mattress reflected "very poorly" on the officers involved.

Mr Ryan said he will refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, meaning the officers could be potentially be charged for their actions.

Charlie's father Graham Robertson told reporters outside court the inquest had shown his son would be "100 per cent alive today" had police acted "accordingly".

The inquest heard at the time of Mr Robertson's death, frontline officers had not been trained in recognising signs of drug overdose but that this training has since taken place.


Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/12/15/03/33/qld-teen-s-death-may-end-in-police-charges
 
There's only so far the "we weren't trained for that situation" excuse will take you. You shouldn't need to be trained to recognize that this person might need immediate medical attention.

I hope they lose their jobs and I think they should probably have to pay the family damages.

Guess we'll see.

What pisses me off is that we don't take poor behavior and bad conduct and unlawful activity committed by law enforcement more seriously. If they're gonna have special laws that increase the penalty for crimes committed against them it should be balanced by special laws increasing the penalty for crimes committed by them.
 
You should of seen what happened today close to where I live. A police officer who was a sergeant tried to beat a breathyliser telling the rookie cop I am the boss here and I can have you fired. She drove off without giving a reading. In the end she got given a 18 month sentence with 12 months non parole.

There goes her career....
 
Omg, that's bloody awful and totally inexcusable. Hard to believe they wouldn't call emergency medical services 8o
 
Doesn't seem like you embellished it from what I read. Personally I'm satisfied with that sentence. Nice to see such corrupt behavior and misuse of authority taken as the serious crime it is.
 
Doesn't seem like you embellished it from what I read. Personally I'm satisfied with that sentence. Nice to see such corrupt behavior and misuse of authority taken as the serious crime it is.

In Australia we take this seriously.
 
Doesn't seem like you embellished it from what I read. Personally I'm satisfied with that sentence. Nice to see such corrupt behavior and misuse of authority taken as the serious crime it is.

Damn right! Hope to see the officers involved in the thread topic brought to justice as well. As you said, the excuse about lack of training only goes do far. Sounds like it was rather obvious the kid needed medical attention, especially if you lift the mattress he's lying on and it doesn't rouse him... They should lose their jobs at the very least.

Edit: Admittedly, I haven't clicked the article link, but any info on why they were looking for his roommate/raiding the apartment?
 
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