Report blasts Queensland's top cop

Queensland's Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson, is facing intense pressure after a damning report into police handling of a notorious death-in-custody case accused him of tolerating a culture of cover-up.

The long awaited report by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC), the state's police watchdog, concluded that the police investigation of the 2004 death on Palm Island of Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee, and a subsequent internal review of that investigation, were both "seriously flawed".

Doomadgee, who had been arrested for swearing, died of massive internal injuries following a struggle with Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley in the Palm Island station, off the north Queensland coast.

Hurley was acquitted of manslaughter at a trial in 2007. A third inquest handed down an open verdict last month.

The CMC stopped short of recommending criminal charges yesterday, but called on Atkinson to discipline six officers: four involved in the original investigation, including two friends of Hurley, and two who carried out the internal review.

The commission's chairman, Martin Moynihan, was scathing about Atkinson, who was recently re-appointed by the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh. "The Police Commissioner is accountable for the police force. He supported the police review process including the spirit and intent of its findings. [He] must now rid the service of the closed, self-protecting culture which is manifest in this case."

Moynihan said the investigation and review were "characterised by double standards and an unwillingness to publicly acknowledge failings on the part of the police".

His failure to recommend criminal charges was a blow to the Palm Island community, and Doomadgee's family. The island's mayor, Alf Lacey, said the CMC inquiry had "produced little more than a rap over the knuckles".

Lacey noted that islanders who rioted following Doomadgee's death had been prosecuted and jailed.