Inquest into Jesse Deacon’s shooting by NSW Police ends

Jesse Deacon’s coronial inquest, which ended on October 2, heard details about the actions of NSW Police in July 2023 which led to his death.

A coronial inquest aims to establish what happened in the lead up to the death of a person, and the people involved in the incident.

Police forcibly entered the 43-year old’s home, ostensibly for a welfare check, on July 20 of that year. Jesse was kettled by three police, with one tasering him and another fatally shooting him in the back.

Judy Deacon, Jesse’s mother, represented herself and questioned the witnesses. She was supported by Leesa Topic, the mother of 22-year-old Courtney Topic, who was shot dead by police in 2015.

Deacon has led a successful campaign for health providers to supply mental health responders to replace police in mental health emergencies.

Jesse was a well-read, talented artist and musician, who struggled with “treatment resistant” schizophrenia. He had spent time in inpatient mental health facilities. A shy person, he also had an illicit drug and alcohol addiction.

In 2023, a neighbour called 000 for an ambulance after Jesse asked them for a cigarette. He had a knife and was using it to cut himself. 

Three police officers, Constable Riley Avery, Sergeant Hugo James and Officer  A*, arrived before the ambulance. The inquest heard that they saw blood near Jesse’s apartment, but did not discuss an approach plan. Their only attempt to communicate with Jesse was Avery asking Jesse to open the door before he kicked it in.

None of the three officers had undertaken training in how to undertake mental health call-outs.

Jesse was still holding the knife when the police intruded. Still, none of the officers attempted to deescalate the situation. Jesse became trapped between two officers. 

Barrister Donna Ward, senior legal counsel assisting the coroner summarised the situation as: “Riley Avery shot a taser into Jesse’s front torso. Simultaneously, Officer A* fired into Jesse’s back, which killed him.”

It took less than eight seconds from Avery kicking Jesse’s door down, to Officer A* shooting Jesse in the back. None of the three officers took up a medical first aid kit to the unit.

Deputy state coroner David O’Neil conducted the inquest over a week in July, hearing from NDIS care workers, hospital workers and police officers, and a further week over September-October.

In the second week, the inquest heard expert medical witnesses, a General Practitioner, a boarding house manager and methadone clinic witnesses.

The Deacon family, including Jesse’s father Michael Deacon and Jesse’s sister, Lucinda Deacon, also gave testimony. An accomplished soprano singer, Lucinda had compiled photos and videos of Jesse’s life and the campaign for justice with a soundtrack “Creep” by Radiohead, covered by Avie Sheck and his mother who sang in Hindi. Lucinda finished her video statement by singing “Traum”.  

Deacon and the Ward put forward their recommendations for changes to policing practices, housing and mental health to the coroner, and requested that Jesse’s case be heard in court.

If the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General agree, the case could go to trial. This has only happened twice in recent history, both times under NSW Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.

Deacon said she wants “real changes to stop these things happening again”. She has been leading a three-year fight to replace NSW Police with trained mental health responders in cases of mental health emergencies. Some $270 million over 10 years was announced for a Virtual Mental Health Hub within NSW Ambulance and eight Mental Health Acute Assessment Teams on July 30. One hundred mental health responders will replace police in parts of NSW. 

“The mental health responders program is Jesse’s legacy and will save lives,” Deacon told Green Left. “There is no justice when someone dies, but at least we have this legacy. It is only a first step and needs refining and a funding boost. We also need supported accommodation.

“Jesse’s death could have been prevented if there had been enough supported accommodation for people with schizophrenia.”

Crown counsel assisting Ward admitted to the inquiry that there was “little behind the media release” of the mental health responder program. “To date, there’s no further details of the roll-out of the new initiative to have mental health trained responders attend call outs through NSW Ambulance.”

The coroner’s report is due in the next few months.

[Non-publication orders mean that Green Left cannot print Officer A*’s full name, nor can we print Judy Deacon’s final request to the coroner.]