{"id":73990,"date":"2026-08-17T15:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73990\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:07:19","slug":"court-hears-boy-who-died-sleeping-rough-in-port-lincoln-skip-bin-was-missing-for-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73990\/","title":{"rendered":"Court hears boy who died sleeping rough in Port Lincoln skip bin was missing for days"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coronial inquest into the death of a 13-year-old First Nations boy who died after sleeping rough in an industrial skip bin has heard he was missing for five days before his death.<\/p>\n

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family.<\/p>\n

The teenager \u2014 whose family has requested that he be referred to as Budda Spencer for cultural reasons \u2014 died in May 2021 after a garbage truck driver tipped the bin during a usual collection round in Port Lincoln.<\/p>\n

The boy was sleeping alongside two other young boys, aged 11 and 12, who were under the Department for Child Protection’s care.<\/p>\n

They were not harmed in the incident.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Budda Spencer, 13, died in an incident involving an industrial bin at Port Lincoln in 2021. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Today, special counsel assisting the coroner, Rebecca Schell, told the inquest the boys had made a decision, before Budda Spencer’s death, to not return to their respective homes that night.<\/p>\n

“The trio had not slept in the bin before this night,” Ms Schell said.<\/p>\n

“The three boys lay down in the bin in a row. They had planned to stay awake at night but they all fell asleep.<\/p>\n

“It was a cold night, but it was warm in the bin and they used cardboard to keep themselves warm.”<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Flowers and teddy bears were among tributes left near the scene following the horrific incident. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The special counsel said all three boys awoke almost immediately before they were being tipped into the back of the truck.<\/p>\n

The court heard one of the younger boys managed to scramble out of the bin to warn the driver.<\/p>\n

“[Budda] Spencer attempted to climb out in the same way \u2014 [his friend] told him to stay down,” Ms Schell said.\"Port<\/p>\n

The coronial inquest is being held in Port Lincoln. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)<\/p>\n

The inquest heard Budda Spencer died in the process of trying to escape the garbage truck.<\/p>\n

Ms Schell told the court that upon noticing Budda’s friend “frantically waving his arms”, the driver stopped immediately.<\/p>\n

The inquest, which is expected to focus on whether the boy’s family had appropriate agency support, is being heard before deputy state coroner Naomi Kereru in Port Lincoln, and will move to Adelaide next week.<\/p>\n

Ms Schell told the court the teenager was a “kind, fantastic storyteller who made his friends laugh”.<\/p>\n

‘Was he appropriately supported?’<\/p>\n

The court heard that, in the five days before his death when Budda Spencer was missing from home, the boy was spotted at a youth event, and that he had also slept rough at a football oval grandstand in Port Lincoln.<\/p>\n

The court heard the police located Budda Spencer during the five-day period and attempted to take him to his house.<\/p>\n

“No-one answered the door \u2026 and [Budda] Spencer ran off from the police,” Ms Schell said.\"A<\/p>\n

The circumstances of the incident caused widespread shock. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The court also heard the boy had a good rapport with an OTR petrol station worker who regularly bought him food.<\/p>\n

Ms Schell told the court he confided in her, saying “home life was not good”.<\/p>\n

She said that the night before the boy’s death, his two friends were “listed as missing with the police”.<\/p>\n

Ms Schell said the inquest would consider whether Budda Spencer’s family had appropriate support from various organisations in the lead-up to his death.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Budda Spencer’s mother Deborah Betts and maternal grandmother leaving the inquest. (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jodie Hamilton)<\/p>\n

The court heard Budda Spencer’s mother Deborah Betts made multiple reports to various agencies about her concerns relating to her son and that she was having trouble making him stay at home.<\/p>\n

The inquest is expected to hear from SA Police, West Coast Youth and Community Services, Youth Justice and the Department for Child Protection.<\/p>\n

“Was he appropriately supported by various agencies?” Ms Schell said.<\/p>\n

“If not, what intervention should have been initiated by the Department for Child Protection?”<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

Members of Budda Spencer’s family outside the coronial inquest, with lawyer Rachael Shaw (right). (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jodie Hamilton)<\/p>\n

Ms Betts attended court today with her son’s grandmother.<\/p>\n

Budda Spencer’s aunty also attended, and at times comforted Ms Betts while she heard details about her son’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coronial inquest into the death of a 13-year-old First Nations boy who died after sleeping rough in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,13292,106850,2717,106849,106848,106845,106846,3944,25861,29576,106844,5475,106847,18093,2036,15119],"class_list":["post-73990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bin","tag-budda","tag-death","tag-drive-through","tag-drive-thru","tag-garbage-truck","tag-industrial-bin","tag-inquest","tag-killed","tag-mcdonalds","tag-port-lincoln","tag-rubbish","tag-sleeping","tag-spencer","tag-teenager","tag-truck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73990","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=73990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}