Cleveland Dodd inquest: Call to summons former corrective services minister Bill Johnston denied by Coroner

Cleveland Dodd’s grieving parents have stormed out of court after their call to drag former corrective services minister Bill Johnston before their son’s inquest was denied by the Coroner. Mr Johnston signed off on the creation of the controversial Unit 18 at Casuarina Prison where the 16-year-old fatally self-harmed in October, when he had been succeeded as minister by Paul Papalia. Mr Johnston, now a backbencher, spoke to reporters outside parliament on Tuesday for the first time about bombshell admissions at the inquest, saying he “acted in good faith to make a decision” to specially gazette Unit 18. “And people forget that this was a small cohort of violent offenders,” he added. “Whatever eventuated, eventuated ... people brought their best intentions. “All the outcomes are not what we want, and sometimes, in this circumstance, there’s been a great tragedy. We will never know what was in the mind of that young man.” Represented by lawyer Steven Penglis, the 16-year-old’s mother Nadene Dodd formally applied for Mr Johnston to be called as a witness, saying his comments had left her in despair. She wondered “what the point of all this is”, Mr Penglis said, and that she had “real doubts ... as to whether there is any real hope for the work of this court and its ultimate findings and any recommendations” to be respected and adopted by the State Government. Mr Urquhart said he’d already considered whether to call Mr Johnston and decided against it. The coroner said he expected the MP would make similar comments to what he told the media and denied the request. “What he said accords, in any event, with what I thought he’d say, that he was acting on the advice of the department,” Mr Urquhart said. The decision was met with shouts of “shame” and “how are we going to get justice here?” as several family members and supporters left the room. “Because he’s so high up, you can’t touch him,” one woman said as she departed. Top brass at the Department of Justice have admitted at the inquest that the information provided to Mr Johnston about the Unit 18 proposal was not accurate, claiming it would offer the full suite of therapeutic services when it in fact opened in July 2022 without even a nurse on site. Then director-general Adam Tomison said he would never have signed off on the pitch document to Mr Johnston if he had known there were multiple inaccuracies — insisting he was relying on his lieutenants to have provided the correct information. Spokesman Gerry Georgatos said both Ms Dodd and Cleveland’s father Wayne Gentle had vowed not to return to the inquest and had lost all hope the State Government would be made accountable. Ms Dodd later told The West Australian she had changed her mind and would be back on Thursday. “It was just the answer I didn’t want to hear today,” she said. Ms Dodd said Mr Johnston standing by his decision to gazette Unit 18 was “not acceptable”. “If he can say it to the media, he can say it to my face. It’s disgusting,” she said. “He never apologised to me. He’s the one who created it. “Nobody deserve to go to jail and die.” After the outbursts, Mr Urquhart said “a point must be reached when the court decides it has heard sufficient evidence” and he was satisfied he would be in a position to make several recommendations.