Racism hindered NSW police investigation into the 1988 death of Indigenous teenager Mark Haines, inquest found

The police investigation into the death of Indigenous teenager Mark Haines in northern New South Wales nearly four decades ago was hindered by racism and deeply flawed, a coroner has found. The body of the Gomeroi teenager was discovered on train tracks outside Tamworth on the morning of 16 January 1988. A stolen Holden Torana was found crashed nearby. Police initially ruled that the 17-year-old had laid down on the tracks either deliberately or in a dazed state, while an autopsy determined he died from a traumatic head injury. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email His family long suspected foul play and believed the police investigation would have been different if Mark was non-Indigenous. After a smoking ceremony on the steps of Tamworth court house on Thursday morning, the deputy state coroner, Harriet Grahame, found there were serious problems with the initial police investigation. Mark’s death was quickly ruled a suicide and his body was moved soon after it was discovered, while the car and train were not forensically tested, she said. “I accept that the initial investigation into Mark’s death was deeply flawed, superficial and inadequate from the outset,” Grahame told the court. While there were other factors at play, Grahame said the investigation took place against the backdrop of deeply entrenched racism in Tamworth and regional NSW at the time. …