Douglas Scott and his son Nathan. Douglas died in a Darwin prison cell in 1985.
NATIONAL: When Douglas Scott died in a Darwin prison cell in 1985, his partner, Letty Scott refused to accept the official verdict that he killed himself . As EMMA PURDY* reports, she fought for the truth for the next two decades.
Just one year ago, Micah Douglas John Scott arrived into the world. His proud father, 26-year-old Nathan, was overjoyed by the birth of his first child. Becoming a dad was particularly important to Nathan, having never known his own father, who died when he was just six months old.
In February 2009, Nathan also lost his mother to cancer, aged just 56.
“It’s good,” he said. “It’s better now. It was hard, because we only lost mum (two years ago). Not that we can ever replace her, but now Micah’s come along we have something to be happy about.”
Nathan’s mother, Letty Scott, was a talented artist and musician. But she is best known for her 23-year campaign to prove her first husband, Nathan’s father, was murdered.
“I don’t have any memory of him,” continued Nathan, “but mum told me she took me into the morgue and placed my hand on his and promised she would fight for the rest of her life for justice.
“She did, all the way to the end.”
When 26-year-old Douglas Scott was found hanged in his cell in Darwin’s Berrimah prison on July 5, 1985 while serving a 60-day sentence for indecent language, Mrs Scott refused to believe he had taken his own life.
Having regularly visited him in prison, she always maintained her husband was beaten by prison guards, describing how his “eye was bashed by the prison officers so that it was damaged and made to point the wrong way”.
She said a week before her husband’s death he told her, “You’re not gonna see me alive, they’re gonna kill me, they promised… They promised to hang me.”
Mr Scott’s death was one of the 99 cases investigated by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, presided over by Commissioner Elliott Johnston in 1989.
In April that year, Mrs Scott and her two daughters from a previous relationship were shown photographs of Mr Scott hanging in his cell by two lawyers – Mick Dodson and Geoffrey Barbaro – who were assisting the Commission in the Northern Territory.
Mrs Scott said the photographs showed him suspended inches from a grate in the nine-foot-high ceiling with his feet dangling two to three feet from the floor, the noose around his neck made from a plain and tightly twisted sheet that was neatly tied in multiple knots, which were tight and close together.
She did not believe her husband made the noose.
Despite her misgivings, the Commission found he took his own life. Although his 60-day sentence was four times the 15-day legal remand limit at the time, the Commission found he was lawfully in custody when he died, 20 days before his case was due to be heard.
Mrs Scott also maintained she never approved the statement submitted to the Commission on her behalf.
Refusing to accept its findings, she obtained legal assistance in April 1993 through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), which wrote to Darwin police forensic department for copies of its photographs. They sent 22 photographs, including two of Mr Scott hanging in his cell.
Mrs Scott was adamant they were different from the photographs she was shown in 1989. She said that this time, Mr Scott’s feet were only about two inches off the floor and the sheet around his neck was orange and patterned.
She described the noose as “a real bulky, loose, rubbishy looking affair, with one great big bulky slip knot.”
Determined to get justice, Mrs Scott sent a submission through her legal team in April 1996 to then Prime Minister, John Howard, for an inquiry into her husband’s death.
Howard simply referred the matter to the Northern Territory government.
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4 Comments
A staggering story. Australia’s shame is never-ending.
there is more to this story.
Thank God that the truth has finally come out through this article.
Monica, Yes thank God SOME of the truth has finally come out through this article. I say too, Thank God for people like Emma Purdy. It sometimes takes someone NOT from Australia to be able to find and see the wood from the trees. It’s unspeakably sad that this country’s Aborigines (and others) are still suffering from the ignorance, racism and downright hatred of too many of those whose job is supposed to alleviate the plight of the oppressed. Scott’s grandson, here in the 21st century, has somehow to learn to cope with the ongoing, intergenerational horror of our country’s continuing racism. The only ray of light in this is that so many non-Aborginal people are good, honest and on our side, which means on the side of truth, justice and understanding. The allegations that some of our own people were co-conspirators in this tragedy is truly shameful. I honestly wonder how some people can fall asleep each night. Perhaps the old question ‘What will it profit [a man] if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?’ means a total of zilch to some people. I have always thought that prisons being called Correctional Centres was a joke. Seems that the officers in Scott’s case had their own ideas of how to ‘correct’ him. The struggle for justice MUST go on and it’s thanks to wesites such as Tracker and other ‘voices’ that those of us determined to continue in that struggle do not get completely disheartened. Lies and cover ups can only last for so long: no matter how many times a stolen car is painted, it’s still a stolen car.