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A coronial inquest has heard prison officers were not given medical direction and nurses' concerns were brushed aside in the aftermath of a prisoner's seizure at the Darwin Correctional Centre. Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing. Wayne Hunt, 56, was taken off life support at Royal Darwin Hospital on August 31 last year, three days after suffering an epileptic seizure in his cell. The Northern Territory coroner this week heard he was placed on suicide watch overnight on August 29, without medical observation and was found unconscious the next morning before being taken to hospital. He was less than a week into a nine-month jail sentence. In February 2024, Mr Hunt was sentenced to three months in prison and nine months in home detention for fatally crushing an 11-year-old boy against the wall of a supermarket in Palmerston two years earlier. In August 2024, his home detention order was upgraded to a prison sentence after a successful appeal by prosecutors. The inquest heard that during his first prison stint, Mr Hunt suffered an epileptic seizure, and another during his home detention. However, when he returned to prison on August 27, initial health screenings inside Darwin Correctional Centre noted Mr Hunt was "calm and cooperative" and "appears well given the situation". His cell-mate told the coroner he raised the alarm when Mr Hunt began "convulsing" at about 4:20pm on August 29, knowing Mr Hunt's previous history of seizures. First responders described Mr Hunt's symptoms as "very violent", with the coroner told Mr Hunt was experiencing the seizure's "postictal" phase, sometimes associated with confused and aggressive behaviour. Prison officers said they were not informed or directed by medical staff on how best to manage Mr Hunt's symptoms, and handcuffed him to stop him from hurting himself. The media was barred by the coroner from identifying prison staff at the outset of the inquest. The prison's Immediate Action Team (IAT) — who the coroner heard were known colloquially as "ninja turtles" for their body armour and special training in forceful restraints — were then called to the scene by prison officers. One IAT officer told the coroner they knew they were responding to a medical emergency but treated Mr Hunt's symptoms as resistance to restraint efforts. The officer said they assumed Mr Hunt was experiencing drug withdrawals. "If he doesn't have control over his movements, is that resistance?" Coroner Elisabeth Armitage asked the officer. "It's still a form of resistance, for us," the officer said. "And are you ever taught that someone might not be able to control their actions?" Judge Armitage asked. "Not as a prison officer," the officer responded. 'I was speechless' Mr Hunt was escorted to an "at-risk" cell by the IAT about 5pm. IAT officers can be seen in bodyworn footage played to the court putting a spit hood on Mr Hunt's head on the way, after telling him "you can't be trusted not to spit". Appearing before the coroner, an IAT officer defended their use of the controversial restraint after Mr Hunt's seizure. The coroner heard Mr Hunt was placed in a suicide watch cell, down a separate corridor to the medical wing's clinic. The IAT officer said they were not concerned about there being no medical staff to receive Mr Hunt at the wing's front desk. "I was pretty task-focused at that point, trying to get him out of the wheelchair and into a secure environment, where everyone can calm down, reassess and go from there," they said. The senior nurse on duty, who arrived at the solitary cell shortly after, said moving Mr Hunt to the clinic "wasn't up for discussion" with the IAT officers. "I was speechless," they said. "At that moment I could only scratch my head why he was going to be put at-risk, and I told them initially that he should be in the clinic." A prison officer told the coroner they had asked a nurse "Why has this man not gone to hospital?" about an hour later but received no response. The sole doctor on duty said they had never in their five years at the prison seen a prisoner suffer a seizure and be sent to the at-risk cell as Mr Hunt was. "I have a memory of looking down the corridor and seeing him being taken to the at-risk [cell] and thinking 'that's not right, why is that happening?'," they said. Sedation unsafe, court told Officers and medical staff said they agreed at the time Mr Hunt needed to "calm down". While in his own cell, Mr Hunt was injected with a sedative by a nurse, and in the at-risk cell, he was given an oral dose of a different sedative. The doctor on duty, who prescribed the second sedative, told the court that in hindsight, it was not safe to give Mr Hunt that dose. CCTV footage played to the court showed the senior nurse on duty having to hold up Mr Hunt's head to administer the second sedative. Judge Armitage said Mr Hunt appeared "comatose" in the footage and unable to reach a duress button above the bed. "At this stage I haven't seen one voluntary movement, from the time he was placed in the cell," she said. Some of the doctor's notes for that day, recorded after Mr Hunt's death, were read to the court. "Starting to become calm, then slightly sedated … by the time I left the clinic about 5:45pm or so. Not seen by me," they read. No sign of activity A prison officer, who was one of the first responders to Mr Hunt's seizure, told the court they went to check on the 56-year-old with the night duty officer, about 6:30 the next morning "I basically just said that I noticed Mr Hunt is in the cell and he doesn't look too good," the junior officer told the inquest. "[The night duty officer] said 'we're aware of the situation'." "Was there any sign of activity that showed the situation was being dealt with?" counsel assisting the coroner Mary Chalmers SC asked. "Not that I could see." The coroner heard that within the hour, nurses were called to assist with Mr Hunt's transport to hospital. The inquest will resume next month to hear evidence around Mr Hunt's cause of death.
