Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has rejected calls to seek possible further examples of “systemic racism” in the NT Police force by obtaining a “random sample of cell phones and records” of senior members of the NT Police.

In a decision released on Tuesday, Ms Armitage rejected calls from Sgt Lee Bauwens to obtain text messages from other senior officers that he said would “make the evidence more representative of the NTPF [police force]” in examining how widespread systemic racism is in the NT Police.

Text messages between Constable Zach Rolfe and other officers – some members of the IRT and some not – have been the focus of the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker. The messages were called “blatantly racist” by another officer and had counsel for the police executive Ian Freckleton condemning them as “repugnant” that “do not represent the values of the Northern Territory Police Force or of most members of that force”.

Sgt Bauwens was the officer in charge of the IRT at the time of the shooting death of Mr Walker although he was on leave on November 9, 2019. He had objected to the messages being used at the inquest.

His request to the court to seize other officers’ phones could have seen senior officers and members of the executive have their government-issued phones seized and checked for any potentially racist messages.

However, Ms Armitage, who has said the inquest would be exploring the role of “systemic racism” in the death of Kumajyai Walker, rejected the call to search any other phones.

In her decision, she said obtaining other officers’ messages may not be “lawful” and suggested that while Bauwens appeared to hold “overtly racist attitudes”, checking others’ phones was not necessary.

“In my view, the principal relevance of Sgt Bauwens’ text messages is not that they are prima facie evidence of ‘systemic racism’ within the Police Force,” she wrote in her decision.

“The principal relevance of Sgt Bauwens’ text-message is that they are prima facie evidence that Sgt Bauwens held overtly racist attitudes and that he expressed these views to his subordinates in the IRT when discussing the work of the IRT.”

She pointed to one text in which Mr Bauwens used the phrase “bush coons” in a series of messages with Constable Rolfe in which they discussed the shortcomings of “bush cops”.

“In my view, there is a potential nexus between Sgt Bauwens’ conduct and the circumstances of Kumanjayi Walker’s death,” Ms Armitage wrote. “Sgt Bauwens was the officer in charge of the IRT. It might be thought that he was, or ought to have been, responsible for establishing discipline and a working ‘culture’ within the IRT.”

She then referenced Supt Jody Nobbs’ earlier testimony to the inquest that the messages showed a “theme of contempt for the community and contempt for colleagues and from that clearly ill-discipline”.

“It is unnecessary for me to consider Sgt Bauwens’ suggestion that I should obtain an apparently random ‘sample of cell phones and records to make the evidence more representative of the NTPF’ in order better to conduct an abstract examination of systemic racism within he Police Force. I doubt very much that this would be lawful,” she wrote.

Ms Armitage suggested that she was looking into how “cultural bias” played a role in Mr Walker’s death – not the overall racist attitudes in the NT Police.

“What I am considering is whether any discriminatory attitudes, systemic racism and/or cultural bias as is evidenced by these text-messages may have been involved in, or made more likely, Kumanjayi Walker’s death,” she wrote in her decision.

Ms Armitage also referenced the messages of Sgt Paul Kirkby, who was a senior officer at the Alice Springs station and had directly supervised Constable Rolfe. He was not a member of the IRT and not involved in the operation to arrest Mr Walker.

He had also objected to the messages being used at the inquest.

Ms Armitage acknowledged that while he was not in the IRT, his messages were still of value to the inquest and that there “may well be a nexus between Sgt Kirkby’s conduct and the circumstances of Kumanjayi Walker’s death”.

Ms Armitage added that “some” of Sgt Kirkby’s text messages “may suggest that Sgt Kirkby expressed or tolerated racism, homophobia, misogyny or contempt for senior police officers and community police”.

She then referenced messages between Sgt Kirkby and Zach Rolfe from September 2019.

“Who was the silly bitch,” Sgt Kirkby wrote about an unidentified woman.

“Fuck knows some white bitch who thinks she aboriginal,” Constable Rolfe responded.

“Lying in the dirt pissed! Doing a fucking good impression,” Sgt Kirkby wrote back.

Ms Armitage also suggested that Sgt Kirkby may have “tolerated or encouraged dishonesty” by Constable Rolfe and had reviewed his previous use of force incidents.

“For these reasons, I do not accept Sgt Kirkby’s submission that his conduct could not be indirectly relevant to ‘the circumstances of Mr Walker’s death’ …”

Constable Rolfe’s legal team had objected to a large part of evidence being aired at the inquest, including the text messages, his use of force history, drug use and his honesty on the police application when he applied to join the NT Police force.

The NT Independent has previously reported on all those issues.

Judge Armitage rejected the objections and ruled that all evidence would be examined as part of the ongoing three month coronial inquest.