‘Medical episode’ to blame for woman’s death: NT Police

Northern Territory Police believe the death in custody of a 44-year-old Indigenous woman in Tennant Creek on Saturday was the result of a “medical episode”.

Police conducted cell checks at the Tennant Creek watch house about 1pm when they found the 44-year-old woman unconscious.

She was taken to hospital but could not be revived.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Peter Malley told media on Sunday the woman had undergone under a health assessment after her arrest for an alleged aggravated assault on Thursday evening.

CCTV reviewed

He said there was no nurse on duty at the station, so officers did not have access to the woman’s medical records.

“At one stage she was in a cell with another lady, there was no interactions between the two and the other lady was released from custody 20 minutes before the episode occurred,” he said.

“We reviewed the CCTV and at 12.34 she was in the cell alone and was seen to fall to the ground, so at this stage we believe it’s a medical episode, but we won’t have a post-mortem conducted until later on in the week.

“The police officer that accepted her into custody conducted that [assessment] and there was no disclosures, no visible injuries to the female at that stage and so everything was believed to be OK.

Taken very seriously

“It’s really about those underlying issues that we can’t see and obviously, with a custody nurse, they have the medical records there so they can have a look and see what the history actually is of the prisoner coming into custody.”

Acting Assistant Commissioner Malley said a death in custody was taken very seriously.

He said the results of the post-mortem would be made available by the end of this week.

Tensions were high in the community following the death, with police and politicians calling for calm.