Aboriginal woman Kumanjayi Dempsey, 44, died at the Tennant Creek Watch House in the Northern Territory on December 27 after being found unresponsive in her cell.Â
Her family have launched legal action in the Federal Court against the NT government, claiming police breached their duty of care to the mother of five.
They claim Ms Dempsey's health was not properly evaluated when she was taken into custody and she was not provided access to her daily medication for rheumatic heart disease.
NT police failed to adequately monitor her and the cell she was held in was not adequately air-conditioned and smelt strongly of sewerage, with the only access to water a tap directly above a dirty toilet, the family alleges.
"Ms Dempsey deserved humane and proper care," lawyer Peter O'Brien said on Tuesday.
"The failure of the NT police to ensure this has resulted in a preventable death that has devastated her family and left her five children to grow up without a mother."
The lawsuit will seek redress for the suffering of Ms Dempsey's family and to ensure there are no further preventable deaths in police custody.
"The police have a duty to protect citizens in their care and
not neglect them to the extent they did with Ms Dempsey," Mr O'Brien said.
Ms Dempsey was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after an incident on Christmas Day.
The circumstances surrounding Ms Dempsey's death, including the watch house policy and procedures and her medical history, will form part of a brief of evidence to the coroner.
Police say officers were not told Ms Dempsey suffered rheumatic heart disease and she suffered a medical episode in custody before her death.
At watch houses in Darwin, Katherine, Palmerston and Alice Springs, a custody nurse checks detainees' medical records and conducts health checks, but there is no nurse at the Tennant Creek watch house.
17°C