A grandfather was stripped naked, handcuffed and made to wear a spit hood after suffering a seizure inside Darwin Correctional Centre, a coronial inquest into his death has heard.
Warning: This story contains details some may find disturbing.
Wayne Hunt died in prison. (Supplied: NT Courts)
Wayne Hunt was taken off life support at Royal Darwin Hospital in August 2024, days after a successful appeal by prosecutors forced the 56-year-old to serve the remainder of a court sentence in prison.
In January last year, Hunt pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in 2022, when his vehicle fatally crushed an 11-year-old boy.
Hunt had been under the influence of cannabis at the time and accidentally hit the accelerator on his RAM 1500 truck, instead of the brake, pinning the child against the wall of a Darwin supermarket.
The inquest heard the grandfather-of-18 “couldn’t live with himself” after the tragic accident, and his February 2024 sentence — of three months in prison, nine months in home detention — was later found by the Darwin Supreme Court to be “manifestly inadequate”.
This image of Wayne Hunt wearing a spit hood was released publicly by the coroner on Monday. (Supplied: NT Courts)
The court ordered his return to prison on August 27, and the next day the facility’s nursing staff reported Hunt was “calm and cooperative” with an “unremarkable” blood pressure.
On August 29, he suffered a seizure in his cell.
The inquest heard corrections officers handcuffed Hunt, placed him in a wheelchair with a spit hood over his head, and transferred him to another cell without medical observation.
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“Footage of that journey will be played to the inquest, it is confronting and — I would posit — not what the community expects from agencies responsible for the care and wellbeing of persons in custody,” counsel assisting the coroner Mary Chalmers told the court.
“Particularly a disabled person who has just suffered an epileptic seizure.”
She said Hunt “was stripped naked and left lying on the floor”, where he was found unresponsive the next day and taken to Royal Darwin Hospital.
Lawyer for NT Corrections Michael McCarthy told the court officers acted “unprofessionally” and, in a statement read to the inquest, NT Health said appropriate standards of care were not met.
Prison staff identities suppressed
The court has suppressed media from identifying any of the prison staff expected to give evidence at the inquest.
The coroner is probing circumstances surrounding the prisoner’s death. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
The inquest heard from a nurse who treated Hunt before his seizure, as well as a corrections officer who responded when the medical episode triggered an emergency alert within the prison.
The nurse said Hunt’s medical record showed he had suffered a seizure during in his first prison stint, but they had been unaware of a second seizure he suffered while in home detention.
The coroner heard the worker knew of the potential for post-seizure recovery periods to be marked by aggressive or erratic behaviour.
The corrections officer responding to the incident said the 56-year-old became violent after his medical episode, but told the court there was “nothing deliberate” in Hunt’s lashing out.
“Have there been any changes since this incident, in the way matters are managed in the prison?” NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage asked the officer.
“Not that I’m aware of,” they responded.
The inquest continues.