Warning: this article includes the name and image of an Aboriginal person who has died. It also discusses distressing themes, including suicide.
The mother of a 16-year-old Yamatji boy who died in Western Australia’s notorious Casuarina youth justice wing has expressed her hopes and fears ahead of the inquest into his death.
Cleveland Dodd was found unresponsive in his cell on October 12, 2023. He later died from self-inflicted injuries.
With the coronial inquest into his death due to begin Wednesday, Cleveland’s mother, Nadene, said it was a time of “mixed emotions”.
“I’m sad, upset, scared. All of them,” she told NITV.
“I want to know what happened to my son. You’d think that a kid would be safe in a place that is watched 24/7 and you’d think that they will come home to you safe.
“My son didn’t come home to me.”
Hopes inquest delivers ‘accountability’
Disturbing reports have already alleged a lack of adequate supervision the night Cleveland died.
An interim report released by state corrective services minister Paul Papalia in November last year found “significant failures”, including that prison guards were relaxing and watching movies.
This was despite Cleveland twice making calls over intercom, and threatening self-harm.
Ms Dodd hopes the inquest delivers findings against anyone who failed in their duty of care.
“Them people should be accountable,” she said.
“They should have helped him when he needed help. If it wasn’t for them to just go and check on him and ask him if he was okay, that would have been different.
“He could have still been here with us but he’s not.”
When releasing the interim report last year, Mr Papalia declared the need for “significant cultural change.”
A close family’s grief for a ‘loving’ child
Nadene Dodd with (from left) Glenda Mippy, Stuart Dodd and Jill Dodd.
Ms Dodd is currently staying with family in Perth, while other family members have travelled down from the Goldfields to attend the inquest.
“My family is the biggest support I have at the moment to get me through this.”
That support has been vital for the young mother, as she campaigns for justice, becoming a powerful advocate for her son.
Evidently stricken by the loss of her eldest child, she has nonetheless fronted media multiple times since Cleveland’s death.
Ms Dodd was at pains to redress any negative portrayals of her son.
“He was a good, loving, caring kid.
“Anyone that knew Cleveland, how he grew up back home in Laverton, they know that he wasn’t the kid that they think he was.
“Any mother that lost their child in the way I lost my son, I’m never going to recover from this.”
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