Newspaper Article 2008 – Last case in a lifetime full of death

Last case in a lifetime full of death

Peter Dennehy reflects on his two decades as a coroner, and looks to a future without such ‘satisfying’ work.
Marty Sharpe reports.

PETER DENNEHY has spent 20 years trying to make sense of death, and he’s going to miss the challenge in his new life.

The Hastings coroner reported on his last inquest last month. Because of changes in the Coroners Act, he is now officially retired from the position he had held since 1988.

The quietly spoken 68-year-old says he probably held more than 500 inquests.

Most of the deaths he dealt with were suicides, and it was perhaps fitting that the final inquest on his last day – June 27 – was that of a young man who had killed himself in a police cell.

“It’s a pet subject of mine, suicide,” he says sombrely, “and what it is that causes a person to take their own life, and whether it was preventable.”

He says mental health problems are “one of the biggest worries in the civilised world”, and he has strong – and controversial – views on how murderers and suicides by the mentally ill could be prevented.

Mr Dennehy believes police should know everyone’s mental health record.

He cites the man’s death in the cell as an example.

“In that case the police had no idea the guy was a mental health patient. If they had they may have behaved differently – not that they acted incorrectly in any way.

“Police know everyone’s previous convictions – well, they should also know the mental health record of all people who come their way.

“Not that everyone with a mental health problem commits crime, but if they do have a mental problem and the police know about it, it is highly likely police may be able to prevent something happening that might not have occurred otherwise.

“It wouldn’t be a useless piece of information.”

Such information-sharing would be limited only to the police and mental health authorities, he says, before acknowledging that concerns over privacy are unlikely to ever allow it.

While on his pet subject, he remarks that laws on what can and cannot be published about suicide are back to front and nonsensical. Specifically, he believes that circumstances of a suicide should be published, but the person’s name is largely irrelevant.

“I don’t agree that only the name of the deceased and that it was self-inflicted should be published. I think that’s all back to front. The name’s not relevant at all, but in my opinion the facts are relevant.

“There is behaviour that commonly occurs in people considering suicide. A parent or wife may see possible symptoms in the person they’re living with and possibly prevent it from happening.

“There is a possibility that many suicides would have been preventable. If your child gets a sniff then there’s a chance he’ll have a cold the next day. You put him to bed with a hot water bottle and care for him and he’ll soon get well. If you apply that simple example to someone who has suicidal potential you might well cure him as well.”

Mr Dennehy is a devout Catholic and was brought up believing suicide was a sin that would prevent entry to heaven. “But suicides will always be with us one way or another, unfortunately. Some of us are weaker than others.”

Mr Dennehy claims never to have been emotionally affected by any of the inquests he dealt with, regardless of how sad or tragic the death.

But he says the most gruelling was probably the inquest on James Whakaruru. The Hastings four-year-old was beaten to death in 1999 by his stepfather Ben Haerewa, who used a brass tack hammer and steel vacuum cleaner pipe.

“That was a real shocker . . . The post mortem report went to ten pages from memory, itemising all the marks . . . it’s quite staggering that somebody could do that to a kid.”

But similar cases have happened since. And that’s probably the greatest frustration of the job – making recommendations and findings that are intended to prevent a tragedy, only to have them ignored or unpublicised. “The press are the tools of the coroner. If we don’t get publicity from you people we don’t get publicity at all.” Being a coroner was not enjoyable but “very satisfying”, he says. “You meet a lot of good people in sad circumstances and you’re able to comfort them in some way.

“It’s not an adversarial role. It’s a referee role. You referee the circumstances leading up to the time of death and you come up with a decision as to why they died and whether we can learn anything from the circumstances.”

Mr Dennehy will continue working as a lawyer, mainly in estates and conveyancing – though his wife Julie would rather he retired completely so they could spend more time on the golf course, or travelling.

“I need to find something else to do now that I’ve lost the coroner’s work. I’ll miss it. I’ll find something to fill the time. If you don’t find something you just grow old and die,” he says with a chuckle.

Photo caption – Rewarding job: Peter Dennehy says he will miss meeting good people in sad circumstances and being able to comfort them.   Picture: LYNDA FORREST

Inquest changes

PETER DENNEHY was one of 55 part-time coroners around New Zealand to have been replaced by 14 fulltime coroners under the Coroners Act 2006.

The fulltime coroners are based in Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

The part-time coroners will complete inquests on deaths that took place before midnight June 30, 2007. All but 34 of the part-time coroners have finished their work.

Under the act, public inquests, traditionally held in courtrooms, are likely to be less common because coroners are now able to complete written reports in chambers.

These reports are then made available to the public.