00:00The family of Tian Jarrah Dennis wears the pain of his loss on their hearts.
00:08He was a family man. Yeah, he was very outgoing.
00:12The proud Wiradjuri man once aspired to be a police liaison officer,
00:17but at 33 he died by suicide inside Silverwater Prison in August 2023.
00:24Dennis was originally remanded in Canberra
00:26before requesting a transfer to New South Wales in 2021.
00:31The inquest heard Dennis moved to prison 17 times in the two years before his death.
00:37Just seven minutes before he was found unconscious, he had threatened to hang himself.
00:41It would be another 90 seconds before guards called for help.
00:46A corrective services officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons,
00:50conceded he was watching a soccer game in the moments leading up to his death.
00:53It was the guards' first day working in that unit.
00:57Counsel assisting the coroner, Kirsten Edwards, SC, repeatedly grilled the officer over his actions.
01:03He admitted in court that it wasn't appropriate to be watching TV while on shift.
01:08No, we haven't received an apology yet. No, we haven't.
01:11But we're hoping, hopefully, they can see the wrong in what they've done.
01:15Dennis is one of 608 Indigenous people to have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission.
01:22While he was in custody in the ACT, he was told he was being mocked by prison staff
01:28who were drawing him as the subject of a hangman game.
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