scone.com.auInquest Recommendations Handed Down
TODAY the Coroner, Magistrate Prowse made recommendations following the inquest into the deaths of Timothy Morgan and John Lawler.
See previous court report: Coronial Inquest: Lawler and Morgan.
The first finding was that Liquor and Gaming New South Wales and New South Wales Police should give consideration to amending the requirements for obtaining the Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) qualification to be more rigorous regime or supervised probationary period before being full qualified.
Magistrate Prowse said “clearly both men were heavily intoxicated, but it is difficult to say if it was all consumed at the one location. For example Mr Lawler had consumed some alcohol at the rugby league match that afternoon and elected to go to the RSL rather than the place he usually socialised, to his local as it were, due to the football presentation going on. It is difficult to say if the whole intoxication occurred at one locations; equally, with Mr Morgan.”
“The purpose of an RSA was to get away from the bad old days of licenced establishments rather than have people line themselves up under a funnel, because there is recognition that excess alcohol could cause harm. Consequently RSA was brought in, so that people who served alcohol could ensure there wasn’t excessive alcohol consumption and to minimise the identified and anticipated risks. In theory having an RSA for alcohol is designed to achieve those goals, but as we heard from Dr Perl and Senior Constable Hain, it’s not a scientific process.”
“Hain reviewed the CCTV in relation to Mr Morgan and himself with his experience and I quote from his statement ‘I have observed thousands of people who have consumed alcohol…and from my experience I am able to form an opinion on intoxication’. Hain had reviewed the CCTV from the club’s 13 cameras depicting Mr Morgan’s movements and said Mr Morgan was seen handing drinks he had purchased to other people.”
“He also observed Mr Morgan had no less than 12 schooners of beer, but goes on to give examples of why he didn’t appear to meet any of the standards of intoxication set out in section 5 of the Liquor Act. Explaining he seemed coordinated and able to have a conversation, not with-standing those observations he had a blood alcohol of 0.240 ad 0.05 it is illegal to drive a car or it is a criminal act.”
“In ordinary terms he would be said to be grossly affected by alcohol…but observations suggest he didn’t satisfy the requirements of intoxication according to the Liquor Act, so difficult to apportion blame. Apart from what may be the obvious the staff displayed very low levels of understanding of their obligations in how to observe intoxication.”
“The reasonably obvious part is if someone is served 12 schooners, even people who have developed a high tolerance to alcohol, even in those circumstances, anyone would come to the conclusion that by 12 schooners in they’d have to be intoxicated. Consequently a bar tender serving someone 12 schooners…might be able to be rebutted to say they weren’t noticeably effected.
“So there might be the need for people with an RSA qualification to also have such a system that might be a mental or physical tally system so that when Mr Morgan came up for his ninth schooner he might not be served a beer and be given a water, a soft drink, coffee or have a break. Given the level of staffing I don’t blame the person serving…when she handed over she didn’t tell the relieving bar staff how many he had…their goal was to single handily cater for and serve the consumables at the work function.”
“Therefore the recommendation is to make a more rigorous tally scheme…or more staffing so one person is not doing the lot. There should be a probationary period…you don’t get a licence without training, it’s the same with lawyers, accountants and police…so why somebody merely passing a test is entitled to a full RSA seems perverse in the circumstances.”
The second recommendation was that Liquor and Gaming NSW and NSW Police give consideration that as part of a liquor licence it is a mandatory requirement to be part of the Liquor Accord. Currently people can opt in or opt out of being part of the Local Liquor Accord.
Magistrate Prowse said Local liquor accords work quite well to increase public safety. “It is perverse that membership of the accord could then be voluntary. If you are going to have a local liquor accord and not suggesting for a moment you shouldn’t, it is perverse that they can then chose if they want to or not. It seems to the court if you acquire a licence to operate a licence then a condition of the licence should be membership of and participation in the local liquor accord.”
The third recommendation was that NSW Police give consideration to increased staff in relation to licencing duties.
Magistrate Prowse said it was staggering that Senior Constable Hain was the sole licencing officer for more than 300 premises in the Hunter Valley local area command. “When asked how many specific licencing staff? He said, ‘Just myself, I’m the only one.’ I asked ‘For all 300?’ and he said, “Yes, your Honour, yes.’”
“Senior Constable Hain said he believed there were 90 officers in the local area command. Magistrate Prowse said while he understood other officers may assist with licencing issues, they had many tasks as local police and the fact that there was only one dedicated resource for licencing was staggering.”
“It makes a mockery of government policy, a mockery of New South Wales police policy and a mockery of the drum beating that goes on in relation to associated RSA. To then get real evidence that for the 300 licenced premises there is one licencing officer. And he didn’t give evidence it was unusual…”
Magistrate Prowse said Senior Constable Hain gave the evidence in such a bland fashion that it seemed he had gave up the fight or was overwhelmed because he couldn’t do anything about staffing.
Magistrate Prowse recognised that “clearly police officers are not stuck in little boxes and don’t move outside that sphere of influence. I’m not suggesting the other 89 officers don’t do anything in relation to licencing but for a command with over 300 licenced premises in its command to have one and one only dedicated to licencing is perverse. Consequently if a greater staffing complement and greater ability to seconder staff then those important supervisory regulatory functions could be pursued with greater deep and vigour than the ability of one staff. And it’s not as though Hain just looks after liquor licencing in his evidence he also spoke about firearm licencing and other functions that come within his purview. It is perverse there isn’t a greater direct strength to that area given the breadth deep of issues alcohol has, so one would think fair greater importance would be attached to licencing given the impact it has one so many other aspects of policing.”
“As we saw yesterday a person went high range twice within three days. They had consumed the alcohol at one place in Murrurundi and clearly that information should get back to other licenced premises or there should have been an unplanned visit by the licencing police to see if they are complying with licencing obligations and if things could be done to improve the service of alcohol. It might not result in charges, it might just be community policing to review the matter and work out how this could possibly happen. It could be done if there was adequate licencing staff and adequate policing staff in general so that the fundamentals could be attended to, because very few offences that come before the courts that don’t seem to have some link somewhere to the abuse of alcohol.”
“As already indicated the court gives sympathy to the families of Mr Morgan and Mr Lawler,” said Magistrate Prowse.
“I also want to cover the fact that scone has a railway running through it and the obvious danger of trains running through the middle of towns and cities. However it fell away from this inquest because the state Coroner’s office in Sydney is contemplating an inquest down there and has a greater scope to examine rail safety and rail deaths than a single coroner sitting in Scone. With the greatest respect Scone isn’t the biggest place in relation to trains, bit it will apply to all the other places down the track and up the track, so when I was told there was a state wide inquest then that aspect of it just fell away.”
“That brings the inquest to a close. I hope it has had some benefit to the families,”
Magistrate Prowse said.
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