Victorian police have apologised to the family of a man who died after being held for five hours in a police cell without medical treatment for a significant head injury.
John Makai, a 58-year-old father of 10, died in 2023 from serious head trauma that went untreated despite him being unresponsive in a Broadmeadows cell, the Victorian coroner’s court heard on Monday.
On the first day of an inquest into his death, footage was shown in court of Makai being dragged from a divisional van into police cells, and repeatedly failing to respond when officers checked on him through the cell door.
The officers twice claimed that he had responded, despite the CCTV of the incident showing no such physical response, counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard told the court.
After the footage was shown, a lawyer for Victoria police’s chief commissioner, Mike Bush, said he apologised for the death.
Andrew Imrie, for Bush, said that Makai’s care “was not at the standard that … any member of the Victorian community is entitled to expect”.
He offered sincere condolences to Makai’s family and said it was “a situation Victoria police and all its employees work tirelessly to avoid”.
Imrie said there was a failure to complete a medical checklist when Makai arrived at the Broadmeadows station. He also said there were failures to notice his deteriorating condition, to complete a risk assessment, and to conduct adequate checks.
There had been disciplinary action taken against officers “where a basis was available”, he said.
“At this stage it is unclear whether these shortcomings would have made any difference to the tragic outcome in this case,” Imrie told the inquest.
The court heard that an ambulance was initially called – but was cancelled – after one of Makai’s sons punched him twice while the pair were drinking with another of his sons and a friend at a house in Sunbury.
Police attended the house and in footage shown to the court could be seen watching on as Makai struggled to stand and then collapsed into a bookcase while trying to sit down.
Police then had to support him to walk to the divisional van, and could be heard telling him to “get his legs up”.
When they arrived at the Broadmeadows police station about 20 minutes later, Makai could no longer stand, and had to be dragged out of the van by his legs, with his head seen striking the floor and walls of the van.
He was then placed seated on the ground, the footage showed.
Officers lifted him under the arms to drag him into a cell, where he was placed in what is known as a “coma position”, the inquest heard. He made no verbal response during this transfer, nor at any other time at the station, the court heard.
Police requested another ambulance at 1.25am, telling them that Makai had a minor facial injury and was in a very deep sleep because of his state of drunkenness, and they would like him to be checked by paramedics.
Ambulance Victoria told police they were struggling with workload but would dispatch paramedics when they were available.
“What was interpreted as deep sleep was in fact the increasing effects of traumatic brain injury and bleeding into the brain,” Ellyard said.
The court heard that because of an issue with Triple Zero Victoria, the job was not actually logged as outstanding. An ambulance was not dispatched until the same police officer again requested another five hours later.
The fresh call for an ambulance came after police entered Makai’s cell and could not get him to respond verbally.
“I’ve got a guy been in custody a number of hours, he’s breathing, trying sternum rubs, all sorts of … we can’t get any verbals out of him, we’d like an urgent check on his welfare,” the police officer said in a recording of the call.
“This request’s made since midnight, and for some reason it’s been cancelled at your end … I’m the custody sergeant, this guy’s breathing but we can’t raise any verbals from him.”
When asked about his breathing, the sergeant responds he had been snoring heavily but not responding “since he came in, since midnight”.
“Unconscious? And you haven’t had any response for six hours?” the Ambulance Victoria operator responds.
The sergeant then goes on to say his officers had been checking on him every 15 minutes, which Ellyard said was proven incorrect in a review of the footage.
When paramedics did respond, Makai was found to be showing signs of a brain injury, the court heard. He was transported via ambulance to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a non-survivable brain trauma.
He died in hospital two days later.
The first witness, Ryan Goon, the director of operations support for Triple Zero Victoria, said that the dispatcher wrongly cancelled the police request for an ambulance.
This was because of an issue with “multiple associated events”, as the first person to call for an ambulance at the Sunbury house had later cancelled the request.
Ellyard said the scope of the inquest – expected to run for two weeks – would consider the cause and the circumstances surrounding Makai’s death, including what treatment he could have received if he was taken to hospital rather than to a police station. It will also examine any changes to policies and reviews that had been completed after his death.
The inquest before coroner Paresa Spanos continues.
