The Unlawful Detention, Torture and Extra-Judicial Murder of Douglas Bruce Scott

SHRG is concerned about the illegal detention, torture and alleged suicide of Douglas Bruce Scott, an Australian Aborigine, in a prison cell in the North West Territories of Australia.

Pointing at the increasing number of Australian Aboriginal custodial deaths presented as suicides and the case of Douglas Bruce Scott, we aim to bring the issue of a fair investigation of these deaths of Aborigines in Australia to the attention of the international community and the United Nations High Commission of Human Rights.

Douglas Bruce Scott belonged to the Anmatyerre Aboriginal Nation of Central Australia. He was found hanging in his cell at the Darwin prison of the Northern Territory of Australia on the 5th of July 1985.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody investigated Douglas Scott's death, ruling suicide. Throughout its enquiry however, the Royal Commission, systematically neglected crucial evidence that when considered by the experienced independent Forensic Investigative Committee that examined both John F Kennedy's and Martin Luther King's murder, raised suspicions of non-suicidal and unnatural death.

Douglas Scott was unlawfully arrested and detained for 60 days for the use of 'obscene' language. While in custody he was tortured, refused bail, legal representation and medical assistance and was finally allegedly murdered in the early hours of the 5th of June 1985. The people who committed those crimes have never been prosecuted…