A controversial cop from Queensland, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who was discharged last 2004 over the death of Cameron Doomadgee while on police custody in Palm Island wins bid over legal payment.
According to Yahoo News, Hurley has been abdicated from his regular duties since last May when a gun shot was fired during a police pursuit on the Gold Coast. In December, Hurley was suspended on full pay after an off- duty incident.
As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart had decided to modify the pay condition of Chris Hurley. However, the Queensland Police Union applied for a reinstatement to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Hurley's police union legal team were successful in their bid for reinstatement and the police commissioner's lawyers agreed to a provisional order to last until the hearing on May. Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers said that they felt complacent on the rational outcome of the bid that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was back on full pay.
In 2007, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was acquitted in connection to the death of Cameroon Doomadgee or known also as "Mulrunji" while on police custody. In November 2004, Hurley was found not guilty of the crime over the death of Mulrunji on Palm Island. Many locals on Palm Island were disappointed over the court's decision but indigenous leaders had urged them to move on.
Owen Wyles, a native elder on Palm Island said that the result was atrocious because there was a life taken away and then a life walking out of the court house. Due to the injuries of Doomadgee, many believed that there would've have beeen conviction.
On the seventh day of Cameroon Doomadgee's death following his autopsy which showed that he had a broken rib and a punctured lung, a riot broke out on Palm Island. The Palm Island police station, court house and Chris Hurley's house were burnt down by the radicals. Police officers sought refuge in a nearby hospital where they were airlifted to safety.
