‘You can’t replace a life with words’: Ms Dhu grandmother Carol Roe and lawyer speak out after apology

“I want my granddaughter back.” This was the response given by Carol Roe — the grandmother of Ms Dhu, whose first name cannot be revealed for cultural reasons — after a formal apology was issued on Friday by WA Police and the WA Country Health Service over the 22-year-old’s death. Ms Dhu died in police custody in South Hedland in 2014 after she was arrested over unpaid fines. “On behalf of the Western Australian Police Force and WA Country Health Service, we apologise to the family and community of late Ms Dhu, a young Aboriginal woman, for the circumstances leading to her death on 4 August 2014,” the statement said. “We are truly sorry for the circumstances of Ms Dhu’s death and recognise the significant impact her passing has had on her family and community. “This apology is made following a mediation process that concluded in March 2024. Other than this apology, details of the conclusion of mediation process remain confidential.” Asked to respond to the apology, Ms Roe simply said: “I want my granddaughter back.” Stewart Levitt, the lawyer handling Ms Dhu’s estate, said the apology meant the WA Government accepted that it was accountable for systemic discrimination against Aboriginal people in Australia. “It’s a recognition that the West Australian Government is being held to account for institutional racism, which led to a young woman being picked up, placed into police custody and treated like a dog in a pound,” he said. Mr Levitt said he did not doubt the sincerity of the apology but casted aspersions over who was giving it. “The people who actually did what they did to Ms Dhu are not the ones apologising, this is an official apology from higher up though I’m sure they are sorry for what happened,” he said. Mr Levitt echoed Ms Dhu’s grandmother’s sentiments on the tragedy. “You can’t bring back a 22-year-old life, you can’t replace somebody with words, or money either,” Mr Levitt said. Ms Dhu was locked up at South Hedland police station on August 2, 2014, over $3622 in unpaid fines. Two days after her arrest, she died in police custody. An inquest into the 22-year-old’s death by Coroner Ros Fogliani in 2016 revealed she died from sepsis and pneumonia from an infection from broken ribs. She had suffered the injury three months before her arrest in a domestic violence incident at the hands of her 42-year-old partner Dion Ruffin. She was transported back and forth from her holding cell to South Hedland Health Campus after repeatedly complaining of stomach pain and feelings of numbness. On her third visit to South Hedland Health Campus, she died. Ms Fogliani stated in her findings that “Ms Dhu’s death could have been prevented if she had been given antibiotics”. Some police testified during the inquest that they believed Ms Dhu was faking illness and was coming down from drugs. The Coroner condemned the police response to Ms Dhu, saying they acted ‘unprofessionally and inhumanely”.