Mona Lisa, Cindy Smith deaths in Bourke: Courtroom erupts over disturbing ... trends now
An inquest into the deaths of the two Indigenous teenagers has erupted into emotional scenes as a coroner found a drunk white man did sexually molest a 15-year-old as she lay dead after a horrific crash in the Outback.
A court packed with the families of cousins Mona Lisa Smith, 16, and Jacinda 'Cindy' Rose Smith, 15, was rocked by a man shouting expletives after the finding in court in Bourke, in far north-west NSW, on Tuesday.
The teenagers died on the remote Mitchell Highway at Enngonia, outside Bourke, in December, 1987.
Some 37 years later, State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan found that Alexander Grant had engaged in 'predatory and disgraceful conduct' with Cindy on the side of the highway after she died.
The coroner also found that Grant had previously driven around Bourke looking for young Aboriginal girls to get drunk and sexually assault.
Jacinta Rose ‘Cindy’ Smith was molested by white driver Alexander Grant shortly after she died from massive internal injuries caused by the drunk and lecherous excavator's highway crash
'Horrifyingly, the evidence indicates he sexually interfered with Cindy after she had passed,' the coroner said.
'I am satisfied there was some sort of sexual interference of Cindy by touching Cindy's breast or genital area after she had passed.'
O'Sullivan also concluded that Grant had lied when he said he was not driving his Toyota HiLux ute when it crashed.
She also found that police racism at the time meant the crash was never properly investigated.
In the weeks before the crash, a white male driver had picked up Cindy and a relative Sharon Smith among other girls and behaved in a 'predatory and sexually inappropriate manner', the court heard.
'I find it was Mr Grant,' Ms O'Sullivan said.
On the night in question - December 5, 1987 - she said Grant 'was again scoping the Bourke township for young girls to ply with alcohol and sexually proposition'.
She found the girls had accepted a lift from Grant for the short distance to the levee in Bourke near their home.
But 'instead of giving them a lift home, he took off with them to the Riverview Hotel about 10pm to purchase alcohol'.
Then, in the early hours of Sunday, December 7, 1987, Grant crashed his ute as a result of unsafe steering due to 'intoxication, fatigue, road speed and lack of lighting'.
Ms O'Sullivan was satisfied that Grant had remained in the vehicle as it rolled, but that Cindy and Mona Lisa had been flung from the ute and sustained catastrophic injuries when it 'rolled onto them'.
She could not estimate the specific time of their death, but said they died 'very soon' after the accident.
'Mona... from multiple internal injuries including head and lung injuries and extensive blood loss. Cindy... from multiple internal injuries including pelvic and lung injuries and extensive blood loss.'
The coroner found that Cindy and Mona Lisa Smith (above) died after being picked up by an intoxicated Grant who scoped the Bourke township for young girls to ply with alcohol and sexually proposition
Grant was charged with indecently interfering with Cindy’s corpse and culpable driving causing the death of both girls, but the indecency charge was dropped and he was acquitted of the latter charge by an all-white jury at his 1990 trial.
Grant did tell a police officer at the scene that he was driving the vehicle, but then changed the story, saying it was Mona Lisa who had been driving.
The coroner found Grant was driving the car despite lying about it afterwards - and accepted the testimony of Constable Ken McKenzie who was at the crash scene that morning.
McKenzie had observed Grant smelt strongly of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, was unsteady on his feet and dirty and dishevelled.
He had indicated at the time that Grant had just changed his story, saying 'oh, now she's the driver'.
'I have no hesitation in accepting his account,'
