The uncle of a teenager found dead on train tracks 37 years ago believes racism hindered the police investigation and recalls a senior officer saying “you never know what a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy would do”.
Don Craigie, whose nephew Mark Haines was found on the tracks outside Tamworth in regional New South Wales, said police didn’t take the family’s suspicions about foul play seriously.
Haines’s body was discovered on the tracks in the early morning of 16 January 1988 after a train passed over it.
“That train would still be there if it was a white boy,” Craigie told an inquest re-examining Haines’s death in Sydney on Friday.
“They would have turned that train over.”
The initial police investigation ruled Haines lay on the tracks either deliberately or in a dazed state after a car crash.
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A stolen white Holden Torana was found near the rail line with the windscreen smashed on the ground, leading police to believe it had rolled.
Haines’s family and many friends told the inquest earlier this week that they maintained the teenager would never have driven or been a passenger in a stolen car.
They also believed he was not alone when he died and have pursued rumours about Tamworth locals either being involved or knowing more about his death.
Craigie told the inquest police didn’t pursue all the information he gave them.
A senior police officer, Ch Supt Alan Donnelly, openly dismissed him when they saw each other in a Tamworth betting shop, Craigie said.
“He said to me ‘Don, you never know what a 17-year-old boy would do, you never know what a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy would do’,” he said.
Donnelly died in 2023.
Matthew Varley, the barrister representing NSW police, asked Craigie whether that sentiment was something the force should denounce.
“It’s not for me to form that opinion whether they should denounce it or not, that’s for them,” Craigie replied.
Varley showed Craigie a series of newspaper articles in which investigators appealed for more information in the years after Haines’s death.
Police also interviewed several people over the following decade, pursuing leads Craigie gave them, according to statements and affidavits before the NSW coroner’s court.
But Craigie insisted police did not adequately follow up his investigations and have treated deaths of non-Indigenous people very differently.
“I’ve seen a few deaths around Tamworth and they’ve pulled out all the stops,” Craigie said.
“And then there was others they did not pay too much attention to.”
He added: “We want to know how our boy died.”
The inquest, which opened in April 2024, was due to conclude on Friday, but further hearings have been scheduled before the deputy state coroner, Harriet Grahame.
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For information and support in Australia call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for a crisis support line for Indigenous Australians; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
