{"id":2509,"date":"2026-05-01T01:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/2509\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T01:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:15:20","slug":"six-wa-police-officers-sanctioned-over-treatment-of-aboriginal-man-who-died-in-kalgoorlie-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/2509\/","title":{"rendered":"Six WA Police officers sanctioned over treatment of Aboriginal man who died in Kalgoorlie prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: This story contains names and images of First Nations people who have died, and details about suicide and self-harm.<\/p>\n

Six police officers have been sanctioned in Western Australia over their treatment of a man in their custody who later died in prison, after the ABC revealed a constable laughed at news of his death.<\/p>\n

Linton Ryan died in his cell at a Kalgoorlie prison in April 2025. He was on remand, charged with aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm, after police allege he tried to strangle his partner.<\/p>\n

An ABC investigation last year<\/a> revealed how a constable dismissed Linton’s warning that he was going to kill himself.<\/p>\n

The officer sent a voice message to a friend after news broke of the 31-year-old Noongar Wongai Adnyamathanha man’s death.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“I interviewed a man the other day, and he was like, ‘I’m gonna kill myself’,” the constable said in the recording.<\/p>\n

“And I was like, ‘yeah whatever’. Put him in the cells. He went to prison the next day and then he killed himself.”<\/p>\n

The officer signed off the voice message with a giggle, “um, lol”, then sent another voice message, “don’t tell anyone that”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Linton was transferred to the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, where he died in his cell. (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n

The constable was stood aside while WA Police conducted an internal investigation, prompted by the ABC’s enquiries, and apologised to Linton’s mother Lynette McIntyre.<\/p>\n

WA Police have confirmed the officer has since been given a “managerial sanction”, and has resumed work.<\/p>\n

“Another five officers, including a supervisor, also received sanctions, in relation to custody procedures,” a WA Police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The revelation of details surrounding Linton Ryan’s death sparked an internal police investigation. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)<\/p>\n

A managerial sanction is a non-disciplinary action taken against officers proven of misconduct to correct their behaviour.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA) legal services director Peter Collins said the sanctions were inadequate.<\/p>\n

“It is entirely predictable that the police involved in the contemptible treatment of Mr Ryan would receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist and effectively given the green light to continue on their merry way,” he said.<\/p>\n

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the behaviour was “horribly unacceptable”, but the punishments given to the officers were appropriate.<\/p>\n

“Police make mistakes … if we sacked every police officer that made a mistake, there’d be none left,” he told 102.5 ABC Perth.<\/p>\n

\"WA<\/p>\n

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch says the disciplinary action was appropriate.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)<\/p>\n

“It’s unacceptable behaviour, [but] I don’t think it was a malicious form of policing.<\/p>\n

“However, when we deal with people who have done horrible things, sometimes you need to know when to be professional, and that is all of the time when you’re a police officer.”<\/p>\n

‘I just wish he was still alive’<\/p>\n

Linton lived with significant mental health conditions, and had a history of self-harm. While in custody at the police watch house, he had smeared himself with faeces.<\/p>\n

An ALSWA lawyer noted Linton had a “very serious” gouge in his arm which had not been medically treated, and he was too unwell to attend his court hearing before he was transferred to prison.<\/p>\n

His brother Shannon Smith said the sanctions against the officers were not enough of a punishment, and he believed Linton would still be alive if his pleas for help were acted on.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Linton Ryan’s mother and brother, Lynnette McIntyre and Shannon Smith, visit his grave. (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n

“The police should have done a better job. When Linton said he wanted to commit suicide, they should have got help, not laugh about his death,” Shannon said.<\/p>\n

“I’m scared of the police. I’m scared to have any involvement with the police.”<\/p>\n

Shannon said the police officers may never have been investigated, or sanctioned, if details of his brother’s time in custody had not surfaced.<\/p>\n

“But I just wish he was still alive, and getting help,” he said.<\/p>\n

WA has highest rates of First Nations incarceration<\/p>\n

Mr Collins said the behaviours and attitudes which underpinned the police treatment of Linton Ryan were “deeply entrenched within WA Police”.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Aboriginal Legal Service of WA director Peter Collins.\u00a0 (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n

“The relationship between police and the Aboriginal people in this state is at an all time low,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The treatment Mr Ryan received at the hands of police in Kalgoorlie is no outlier.”<\/p>\n

Across Australia, WA has the highest rate of Indigenous incarceration per capita of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n

Data collated by the Australian Institute of Criminology also showed WA has the highest rates of Indigenous deaths in custody.<\/p>\n

Mr Collins said ALSWA’s custody notification data showed that almost 50,000 Aboriginal people would be arrested by the end of the year, at the rate of arrests so far.<\/p>\n

“There are more Aboriginal people coming into contact with police than ever before,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is no appetite whatsoever to change this awful reality.”<\/p>\n

WA Police said its officers were “committed to serving and protecting all community members in Western Australia”.<\/p>\n

“[Linton Ryan] was a declared serial family violence offender, as determined by the courts,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The WA Police Force maintains zero tolerance of family violence perpetrators in the community, and will always prioritise the safety of victim-survivors.<\/p>\n

“The WA Police Force will always respond to reports of family violence and will investigate and prosecute offenders, regardless of who they are.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: This story contains names and images of First Nations people who have died, and details about suicide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2312,3744,22,21,3747,3743,3745,3736,3740,2308,3742,3741,3737,335,1047,3739,3738,3735,3746,353],"class_list":{"0":"post-2509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-aboriginal","9":"tag-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-austrlia","12":"tag-black-deaths-in-custody","13":"tag-custody","14":"tag-death-in-custody","15":"tag-deaths-in-custody","16":"tag-first-nations","17":"tag-indigenous","18":"tag-indigenous-australians","19":"tag-kalgoorlie","20":"tag-linton-ryan","21":"tag-perth","22":"tag-police","23":"tag-self-harm","24":"tag-suicide","25":"tag-wa","26":"tag-wa-police","27":"tag-western-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}