WA suicide inquest has heard people were ‘ostracised’ for revealing abuse

A coronial inquest into the suicides of 13 young Indigenous people in the Kimberley has heard that a teenage boy who took his life had ten years earlier told a community worker that he had been abused.

File image. Source: Getty Images/Fred Langer Photography

A 17-year-old Aboriginal boy who committed suicide at Broome's football oval was rejected as a boy after telling a community worker he had been sexually abused, the inquest into a spate of suicides among Aboriginal youths in Western Australia's far north has heard.

The boy was allegedly ostracised when he was seven years old by the Wonka Jonka Aboriginal Community he lived in, for disclosing the abuse and that of other alleged victims.

The field officer he told, Linda Sara, said she had to leave the community because her safety was threatened by families of the alleged abusers when she disclosed the information.

The inquest in Broome heard the boy had been neglected from the moment he was born.

The inquest is scheduled to run for over three months and travel to multiple locations. It was called after the death of a 10-year-old girl in a remote community last year, and it’s looking at 13 tragic suicide cases between November 2012 and March last year, of which five were children aged between 10 and 13.

AAP