INTENT FOCUS YOUR ENERGY THERE IS AMAZING POWER IN A STRONG INTENTION.

July 06, 2004
WAS TJ Hickey being followed or chased? If it was the latter, the NSW Coroner may have some thorny questions for TJ's police pursuers.

The teenager whose death sparked the Redfern riots was carrying marijuana and cycling at high speed when a police vehicle followed him down a cul-de-sac, up over a kerb and along a footpath until a gate finally blocked it.

Thomas "TJ" Hickey, 17, then crossed a road, lost control of his bicycle and was impaled on a metal fence at about 11.20am on February 14 this year. He was pronounced dead at 1.20am the next day.

Many might describe this as a "chase" or a "pursuit", but not Detective Senior Constable Michael Kyneur, the officer in charge giving evidence yesterday at the opening of the coronial inquest into TJ's death.

"Redfern 16", the police truck following TJ through the indigenous heartland of inner Sydney, was not permitted under a NSW Police safe driving policy to engage in a "pursuit" of a person.









Even if it was, Constable Michael Hollingsworth and his partner Constable Maree Reynolds were required to activate their siren or blue light and alert superiors.

They did not contact the station and only one witness claims to have seen a blue flashing light through a dense clump of trees.

The NSW Police policy defines a "pursuit" thus: "An attempt by a police officer in a motor vehicle to stop and apprehend the occupant/s of a moving vehicle who is attempting to avoid apprehension or appears to be ignoring police attempts to stop them."

The inquest heard Detective Kyneur failed to formally interview constables Hollingsworth and Reynolds or their colleagues in "Redfern 17", the first police car to find TJ, until six days after TJ died.

Meanwhile, the Aboriginal community based at the notorious "Block" on Redfern's Eveleigh Street had exploded in a furious riot that saw many of its members hurling rocks and bottles at police.

"As an investigator of a critical incident, was it not thought by you to be important to speak with the four people who might be able to shed direct light?" counsel assisting the coroner, Liz Fullerton SC, asked Detective Kyneur.

"We did that on their first rostered shift back," the policeman replied.

During a walk-through of the incident on February 14, Constable Hollingsworth did not say he had driven down the footpath - he didn't mention that until February 21 - after witnesses spoke of it in media reports.

Ms Fullerton said there was unresolved conflict in the evidence of constables Reynolds and Hollingsworth.

The inquest also heard police that morning were trying to find Christopher Carr, another Aboriginal man.

They believed Mr Carr was responsible for a bag-snatch. Shortly before Redfern 16 first saw TJ and began to follow him, Mr Carr was seen across at the nearby RSL, but was not captured by police.

The two police briefings at the station that morning, which all four relevant officers attended, were not recorded.

Constable Darryl Pace, the officer in charge of the Carr incident, confirmed he knew TJ from a previous arrest.

The inquest continues.

TO ME, THIS WAS JUST A FREAK ACCIDENT. BECAUSE THE BOY IS BLACK NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY OR THINK, YOU WILL BE CONSIDERED RACIST. THE BOY WAS DOING THE WRONG THING......HE WAS IN POSSESSION OF DOPE. IT'S NOT LIKE HE WAS OFF ON A SUNDAY BIKE RIDE ENJOYING THE SCENERY. POSSESSION OF DOPE IN THIS COUNTRY IS ILLEGAL......GET IT??????