Family urged to sue over elder's death
ABC Online
A lawyer's group says the family of an Aboriginal elder, who died while being transported by prison guard contractors in searing heat, should sue the WA Government. Mr Ward died in 2008 after being transported hundreds of kilometres across the Goldfields in a prison van with faulty air conditioning.
The temperature in the back of the van was close to 50 degrees. The Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to lay criminal charges against anyone involved in his death. This is despite a coronial inquest finding that the Department of Corrective Services, the two prison van drivers and their employer G4S were all partly responsible.
The DPP, Joseph McGrath, told the family no charges can be laid because of a lack of sufficient evidence. "The offence that it would most closely fit to is manslaughter by criminal negligence. Upon considering that offence, it was determined that it could not be said that it was a prima facie case," he said.
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