Pinkenba Six

The Pinkenba Six is a group of Queensland police officers accused of the abduction of three Aboriginal boys in May 1994. Each of the six (Anthony Venardos, Barry Donelly, Matthew Johnson, Mark Ellis, Mark Henderson and Kelly Hanlen) were charged with three counts of deprivation of liberty.[1] The six were not jailed and the charges were dropped.

The crime

The three boys, aged 12, 13, and 14, were ordered into a police car by the six officers in an inner city neighbourhood of Brisbane.[2] Each boy was driven in a separate patrol car to a swampy industrial area in Pinkenba, Queensland at 4 a.m.[3] The officers threatened to throw the boys into the swampy area, and referred to a place where people's fingers were cut off, in order to get them to comply with their demands. The boys were abandoned after their shoes were removed.[4] The boys later retrieved their shoes and began to walk home. They finished the journey in a taxi paid for by a security guard they met along the way.

Outcome

Police later admitted that the boys had not previously committed any crimes but were taken to deter them from committing any crimes or being a public nuisance.

Following an investigation by the Criminal Justice Commission, the Public Prosecutor laid charges against the police for deprivation of liberty. The charges were later dropped after a magistrate[5] found the boys agreed to go with the police officers.[6] The officers were put on probation for one year by the police service, not as a court sentence.[7]

The decision drew criticism from many members of the community, the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT), and the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties.[8][6] The case has been cited as an example of " the cultural and linguistic disadvantages faced by Aboriginal children in the courtroom in both the way that evidence is taken from them, and the way in which it is interpreted."[9][3]

One of the Pinkenba Six was Mark Ellis, who was a One Nation candidate in Queensland until his withdrawal in 2017.[10]

Bibliography
  • Prenzler, Tim. Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC, 2009. Print.

References
  1. "Police cleared of kidnapping three boys". Canberra Times. 25 February 1995. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  2. Prenzler, Tim (27 March 2009). Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity. CRC Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-1-4200-7797-1.
  3. Blewer, Robyn (15 April 2021). Child Witnesses in Twentieth Century Australian Courtrooms. Springer Nature. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-3-030-69791-4.
  4. "These boys weren't breaking the law when police drove them 12km out of town and told them to walk home". ABC News. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  5. Griffith, Chris (20 March 1996). "Paynter case still a puzzle". Chris Griffith. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  6. "Police cleared of kidnapping three boys". Canberra Times. 25 February 1995. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  7. Chang, Charis (26 April 2017). "One Nation candidate Mark Ellis receives death threats over controversial past". news.com.au. News Limited. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  8. "Outcry after Pinkenba Six let off". Green Left. 6 September 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  9. "Eades, Diana --- "Cross Examination of Aboriginal Children - The Pinkenba Case" [1995] AboriginalLawB 46; (1995) 3(75) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 11". classic.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  10. "Australian far-right candidate quits after photo emerges of him saluting swastika carved into his lawn" in The Independent, retrieved 2019-10-09.
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