The family of Birri Gubba woman Shiralee Tilberoo say they want accountability and justice for her death inside a Brisbane watch house in 2020.
They spoke on Tuesday outside the coroner’s court, where watch house officers who performed physical checks on Tilberoo in the days before her death repeatedly told an inquest that they “could not recall” their interactions with her, whether she had vomited, or whether she had eaten breakfast.
Tilberoo – known as Aunty Sherry – died of a brain aneurism in the Brisbane watch house in the early hours of 10 September 2020. The Brisbane coroner’s court is hearing a joint inquest into the deaths of Tilberoo and Vlasta Wylucki, who also died in the Southport watch house.
Standing in the witness box beside an Aboriginal flag and wreath of yellow and red flowers, Aunty Davina Tilberoo and Aunty Kathy Brady remembered their sister as a “loyal” mother of three.
“It is impossible to convey the pain and grief of her loss for her three children and grandchildren, sisters and brothers, nephews and nieces, extended family members,” Davina told the court.
“Sherry can never be defined by the degrading way she died. We all believe she should be with us today.
“We want to ensure that what Sherry was forced to endure never happens again to anyone’s mother, grandmother, sister or daughter, granddaughter and extended families – that this never happens to any other human being again”.
Outside court Tilberoo’s nephew Jungaji Brady said the family wants “justice and accountability” over her death.
Tilberoo’s death sparked Black Lives Matter protests across Brisbane’s CBD and the suspension of an assistant watch house supervisor.
A pre-inquest conference heard Tilberoo, 49, was in the watch house while suffering from heroin withdrawal and that she had been sick and shaking, as well as vomiting and refusing to eat.
A senior watch house officer, Garry Mohr, performed physical checks on Tilberoo on 7 September and 9 September – the day before she died. He told the court he could not recall her vomiting in her cell.
Retired senior constable Stewart Pinteritsch told the inquest that, when he was working at the watch house on 8 September, Tilberoo had refused breakfast and lunch, as well as dinner the night before.
“She said if I’m going to prison I’m going to starve herself,” Pinteritsch told the inquest.
“I contacted the nurse and … she advised me as long as she was drinking [water] she would be OK.”
Pinteritsch said he repeatedly asked Tilberoo to take a blanket off her head because he needed to see whether she was breathing.
“Her response was quite animated,” he said.
Prof Christian Gericke, a neurologist from the University of Queensland, told the inquest that he did not believe anyone could have changed the outcome of Tilberoo’s death, which he described as “very quick”.
“I found no evidence that she had a previous bleed or an incident or finding on a previous scan,” he said.
“There’s no way this was foreseeable.”
Tuesday’s hearing came after evidence was given about the death of Wylucki in Southport watch house in 2018.
The court heard on Monday that officers at the watch house failed to properly check that Wylucki was still breathing on at least 11 occasions before she died.
The joint inquest continues on Wednesday.
