Witness tells inquest that guards used slurs and were warned of Indigenous prisoner’s plan to end life

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An inquest into the death of an Indigenous prisoner has heard an inmate repeatedly warned guards the man had a plan to end his life while officers referred to the Wiradjuri man by derogatory slurs. Tian Jarrah Denniss died by suicide at Silverwater prison two years ago.

Transcript

00:00Unnecessary. That's how a fellow inmate described the death of Tian Jarradenis.

00:07Known only to the court as Witness A, the inmate told the inquest he repeatedly warned guards the 33-year-old had a plan to kill himself.

00:15He says these warnings were ignored.

00:18Witness A recounted seeing Dennis blue in colour while he waited for prison officers to act.

00:23The inquest previously heard it took guards 90 seconds to call for help.

00:28The prisoner recalled hearing the officers label Dennis as a black dog and referred to him as just another black s**t we need to deal with.

00:35He said after the man died he was told if you feel that way about the blacks you can move into his cell.

00:41He went on to detail the treatment of the man in custody saying he believed jail staff had assaulted Dennis the day before his death.

00:49And that his food was spat on and contaminated with human faeces by other inmates.

00:54Witness A told the court he had been threatened more than 30 times by guards who said he would be punished if he testified.

01:01The inquest continues.

01:04Things were fired and justified.

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