A Northern Territory policeman cleared of murdering teenager Kumanjayi Walker allegedly assaulted an Aboriginal man and used excessive force with three others.
Constable Zachary Rolfe also lied under oath, according to a judge, and sent text messages saying his job was a “sweet gig with no rules in the wild west doing cowboy stuff”.
The 30-year-old was acquitted on March 11 of all charges related to the shooting death of Mr Walker, 19, in November 2019 during an attempted arrest in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, 290km northwest of Alice Springs.
Suppressed evidence not presented to the trial jury has been released in recent days about four incidents before Mr Walker’s death where Const Rolfe allegedly used excessive force.
The first was during an arrest when the constable allegedly punched Aboriginal man Malcolm Ryder in the head, grabbed his hair and slung him to the ground, rendering him unconscious with cuts that needed 16 stitches.
After the incident in January 2018, Const Rolfe allegedly asked a detective at Alice Springs Police Station to scratch his face so he could blame it on Mr Ryder to justify his use of force.
A local court later found Mr Ryder had no case to answer over allegations he hindered and assaulted police, with Judge Greg Borchers saying Const Rolfe’s evidence lacked creditability and he had lied.
“Rolfe deliberately banged his head into the floor as he was being turned over to be handcuffed,” he said of the incident.
Const Rolfe is also accused of banging a 17-year-old boy’s head into a rock several times, causing cuts, during an arrest in April 2019 and making a false statement to cover his excessive use of force.
About six months later in September, the constable allegedly struck a man who had run from him causing him to crash with force into a fence.
A month before Mr Walker died, Const Rolfe allegedly pushed another man involved in a domestic argument with such force that he struck his head and needed four stitches.
Const Rolfe and other police were investigated for perjury over the incident involving Mr Ryder and their conduct was found to be unprofessional, not criminal, with a senior officer noting they were junior and inexperienced.
In the weeks before Const Rolfe was tried for murder, Justice John Burns refused the prosecution’s application to present the evidence to the jury, saying no charges had been proven against the policeman and it could be prejudicial to him. The evidence was then suppressed, meaning the media could not report it.
But Justice Burns refused Const Rolfe’s lawyer David Edwardson QC’s request on Friday for the orders to be maintained after the trial, saying open justice was more important than the constable’s reputation.
Mr Edwardson also tried unsuccessfully to block the release of Const Rolfe’s text messages to mates in the army, which also described Alice Springs as a “s*** hole”.
The lawyer had argued there was no public interest and that there were future inquiries to consider, including the inquest into Mr Walker’s death scheduled for September 5 in Alice Springs Local Court.
The suppression orders were among 26 revoked. The decision also permits media to report that Const Rolfe’s father, Richard Rolfe, was accused of intimidating a key prosecution witness during his son’s trial.
The court was told that on March 1, when the jury was not present, Mr Rolfe allegedly spoke to expert witness Senior Sergeant Andrew Barram in the toilet about his evidence and stared at him in an intimidating manner.
Mr Rolfe later denied it, telling the NT News the two had simply passed each other in the bathroom.
More than a dozen police body-worn camera and CCTV videos of the four incidents were also released to the media on Monday, with some showing graphic scenes of the arrests.
Const Rolfe’s trial and the circumstances around his arrest are expected to become subject to parliamentary debate in the NT.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner has been accused of politically inferring in the case, which he denies.