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The prison officer who applied the spit hood over Selesa Tafaifa’s head does not remember hearing her say, “I can’t breathe” in the minutes before she died, an inquest into her death has heard. The room was “echoey”, the officer said.
The female officer told an inquest into Selesa’s death this week it was the first time she had ever applied a spit hood on a prisoner; that she had never even seen one on them. She thinks she may have used one on a person during training, before 2010. Several witnesses told the inquest she had not applied it “100% optimally”, and she conceded she had had trouble putting it on; it later fell off and was reapplied.
The court was told the officer said, “It’s suffocating her” on 30 November 2021, minutes before Selesa, 44, died of a heart attack in the Townsville women’s correctional centre, after being restrained in handcuffs and placed in a spit hood.
At the inquest, conducted by the Queensland deputy coroner, Stephanie Gallagher, the officer explained her words – captured on bodyworn footage that was repeatedly played in court – did not mean that she actually thought Selesa was suffocating. She said she was “frightened” of the cloth and mesh masks because she had recently watched an ABC documentary about them being banned in other parts of the country.
Selesa’s family are now calling for a legislated ban on spit hoods in jails.
Her death
“My puffer, my puffer,” Selesa said just before the hood went on, the court heard.
The correctional emergency response team (Cert) leader – who gave most of the orders that day – never heard those words. He had “audio exclusion and tunnel vision”, he said.
“I can’t breathe,” Selesa said four times, the court heard.
“Then you need to comply with directions so we can stand you up,” the team leader said immediately afterwards.
He later told the inquest: “I never heard her say, ‘I cannot breathe’, sir.”
The inquest heard a third male officer had “tinnitus and partial hearing loss”. The hood was applied because he said Selesa spat on him.
“It’s suffocating her,” the female correctional services officer said, seconds after applying it.
The Cert team leader told the court he heard those words but did not comprehend their meaning. The other two officers reassured her, one telling the female guard that Selesa must be able to breathe because she could talk.
Asked if a spit hood should be taken off a prisoner who complains that they cannor breathe, a fourth community corrections officer who was there told the court: “You put your own safety before anyone else’s safety.”
“Even if you believe a prisoner could be dying, your safety is imperative?” Dan O’Gorman, the lawyer acting for the family, asked in response.
“I did not believe she was dying at that point.”
None of the guards can be named for legal reasons. All were offered legal immunity for being required to give testimony that may incriminate them by the deputy state coroner.
Selesa
Selesa, 44, was unpredictable, aggressive and had a substantial criminal record, the inquest heard. Guards said she would even bang her head against the ground or wall if worked up, they inquest heard, and would also yell during conflict to prevent guards communicating with one another.
Selesa had various medical problems, including obesity and schizophrenia, and had spat at guards before. They did not have access to her health or mental health records. She would often lose her breath when walking.
She could also be charming, friendly and easygoing, the inquest heard. She died in the prison’s detention unit, in solitary confinement.
Officers claimed she would also often pretend to be unwell in order to draw guards close in order to attack them. It took guards two minutes to return to her cell after raising the alarm because they first got a plastic shield in case it was a ruse.
The Cert team leader, who the court heard was highly trained, told last week’s inquest he still believes Selesa’s words were “manipulative”.
“She would regularly use that puffer as an excuse to end conflict that she’d begun with prison officers and with prisoners,” he said. Several officers testified similarly.
“The girl who cried wolf is some of our training manuals’ perspective … The fact remains that … she had been afforded an opportunity to rest and recuperate. And she only started this particular line of complaint after the safety hood was applied.”
On 30 November, she had grown frustrated after being locked out of the prison’s phones by its automated system.
The guards ordered her to return to her cell, but she refused. She dropped to the floor and started screaming. The officers put her into a “modified prone” position due to her weight. They put her in a spit hood, got her to her feet, walked her to her cell and then again put her in a prone position, next to her metal toilet, where she died. They conducted a rapid “dynamic extraction” from the cell and slammed the door behind them.
The Cert team leader said he was constantly assessing the prisoner medically during the entire incident.
Training issues
Immediately after her death – after lengthy efforts performing CPR – the guards held what they called a “hot debrief”.
A video shows that more than a dozen officers sat in the officers’ mess to hear from the Cert team leader.
O’Gorman accused them of doing the debrief so officers could come up with a “consistent story” for the police. The guards denied this.
The Cert officer ran through his version of events. After this, everyone went away into separate rooms to write up their statements. They later spoke with police.
The Queensland Corrective Services assistant commissioner Joel Smith was asked if the prison was under his command, would he consider the “hot debrief” appropriate.
“No,” he said.
The court heard that under the correctional services procedures policy, a death in custody debrief should not take place until after the police have arrived.
The inquest
There were more than two dozen lawyers in the room at points during the inquest, so many aides spilled into the public seating. The counsel assisting, Patrick McCafferty, is a king’s counsel.
Selesa’s family attended every day, including her Samoan grandfather, Tiumala, who speaks little English, her brother Su’a Andrew, sister Su’a Salote, granddaughter and sister Leilua, who looks like her twin.
An outcome?
It is still not yet clear exactly why Selesa went into cardiac arrest, the inquest heard.
Forensic pathologist Jessica Vidler’s autopsy report for the coroner found she had recent injuries all over her body, three abrasions to the head, 15 to her arms and seven to her legs and feet.
She had seven bruises up to 12cm long on her chest and back, one of which was attributed to efforts to resuscitate her, while the others were likely caused either during restraint or resuscitation, Vidler found.
Vidler found the cause of death “not determined”.
One corrections officer said they had been trained to look for several symptoms, including “wheezing”. The ambulance service medical director, Stephen Rashford, said she let out a wheeze before she died, indicating respiratory distress.
Another guard said he had been trained that “if they’re talking, they’re breathing”. Queensland corrective services lawyer April Freeman pointed him to a section in their policies that identifies a prisoner saying they cannot breathe as a specific warning sign.
Rashford told the inquest that despite all her other ailments, “if Selesa wasn’t restrained, it’s highly unlikely she would have suffered a cardiac arrest”.
O’Gorman asked the officer who applied the spit hood if there was anything she thinks she could have done differently.
“I don’t know. Maybe I could have … [tried to] … yell out more that I was having difficulty putting the spit hood on, so someone could step in and help me.”
Outside the inquest, at its conclusion, Selesa’s family described her as nurturing and gentle. They said her life had been put under the microscope during all four weeks of hearings.
“She was nurturing, caring. She was funny and gentle. Her heart was always about her family, regardless of her mental challenges,” daughter Su’a Salote Isaako said.
The inquest has been adjourned for Gallagher to consider her findings.