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Teen a willing participant in fatal fight, inquest told |
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| A TEENAGER was seen throwing punches and repeatedly running back into the schoolyard brawl that took his life, even after an older student tried to keep him out of the fray, a coronial inquest in Lismore has heard. Jai Morcom died from a brain haemorrhage after a fight began between year 9 and 11 students vying for the use of an aluminium table at Mullumbimby High School on August 28, 2009. On the first day of an inquest into the 15-year-old's death, police yesterday described Jai as a willing participant in the brawl. They said it occurred during long-running "table-wars" at the school, in which year 11 and year 9 students were fighting over a lunch table. The police officer in charge of the investigation said witnesses had seen Jai throw punches and return three or four times into the melee after being pushed out by one of the older brawling students who had allegedly told him: "Get out of this. I like you guys." Detective Sergeant Terry Frost, of Byron Tweed Area Command, said in a statement tendered to the coroner: "Jai clearly entered the fight of his own free will and was aggressive towards others." Sergeant Frost said police had interviewed more than 100 people during the course of the investigation, but no charges had been laid. If charges did arise, he said, self-defence could be raised, given the evidence of Jai's involvement in the fight. Counsel assisting the coroner, Michael Wigney, said in his opening statement that the key issue at the inquest would be whether the subarachnoid brain haemorrhage that killed Jai was caused by trauma to his head in the fight or the result of a naturally occurring brain aneurism. Mr Wigney said four medical experts would give evidence saying they agreed the cause of the brain injury was indeterminable. He said there was no evidence of a culture of bullying at Mullumbimby High, and the school was no more or less violent than any other. Outside the court Jai's father, Steve Drummond, said he "absolutely" believed his son's death was the direct result of the fight at the school and not an aneurism. "I've delved into this and it would be highly unusual for a fit boy of his age to experience an aneurism and rapid death after showing no previous symptoms, no thunderclap headache," Mr Drummond said. The inquest is expected to last two weeks.
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