Mona Lisa, Cindy Smith deaths in Bourke: Courtroom erupts over disturbing necrophilia ruling

An inquest into the deaths of the two Indigenous teenagers has erupted into emotional scenes as a coroner found a drunk white man did sexually molest a 15-year-old as she lay dead after a horrific crash in the Outback.

A court packed with the families of cousins Mona Lisa Smith, 16, and Jacinda 'Cindy' Rose Smith, 15, was rocked by a man shouting expletives after the finding in court in Bourke, in far north-west NSW, on Tuesday.

The teenagers died on the remote Mitchell Highway at Enngonia, outside Bourke, in December, 1987.

Some 37 years later, State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan found that Alexander Grant had engaged in 'predatory and disgraceful conduct' with Cindy on the side of the highway after she died.

The coroner also found that Grant had previously driven around Bourke looking for young Aboriginal girls to get drunk and sexually assault.

'Horrifyingly, the evidence indicates he sexually interfered with Cindy after she had passed,' the coroner said. 

'I am satisfied there was some sort of sexual interference of Cindy by touching Cindy's breast or genital area after she had passed.'  

Ms O'Sullivan also concluded that Grant had lied when he said he was not driving his Toyota HiLux ute when it crashed.

She also found that police racism at the time meant the crash was never properly investigated.

In the weeks before the crash, a white male driver had picked up Cindy and a relative Sharon Smith among other girls and behaved in a 'predatory and sexually inappropriate manner', the court heard.

'I find it was Mr Grant,' Ms O'Sullivan said.

On the night in question - December 5, 1987 - she said Grant 'was again scoping the Bourke township for young girls to ply with alcohol and sexually proposition'. 

She found the girls had accepted a lift from Grant for the short distance to the levee in Bourke, near their home.

But 'instead of giving them a lift home, he took off with them to the Riverview Hotel about 10pm to purchase alcohol'.

Then, in the early hours of Sunday, December 7, 1987, Grant crashed his ute as a result of unsafe steering due to 'intoxication, fatigue, road speed and lack of lighting'.

Ms O'Sullivan was satisfied that Grant had remained in the vehicle as it rolled, but that Cindy and Mona Lisa had been flung from the ute and sustained catastrophic injuries when it 'rolled onto them'.

She could not estimate the specific time of their death, but said they died 'very soon' after the accident.

'Mona... from multiple internal injuries including head and lung injuries and extensive blood loss. Cindy... from multiple internal injuries including pelvic and lung injuries and extensive blood loss.'

Grant was charged with indecently interfering with Cindy’s corpse and culpable driving causing the death of both girls, but the indecency charge was dropped and he was acquitted of the latter charge by an all-white jury at his 1990 trial.

Grant did tell a police officer at the scene that he was driving the vehicle, but then changed his story, saying it was Mona Lisa who had been driving. 

The coroner found Grant was driving the car despite lying about it afterwards - and accepted the testimony of Constable Ken McKenzie who was at the crash scene that morning.

Constable McKenzie had observed that Grant smelled strongly of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, was unsteady on his feet and dirty and dishevelled. 

He had indicated at the time that Grant had just changed his story, saying 'oh, now she's the driver'.

'I have no hesitation in accepting his account,' Ms O'Sullivan said.

However she had no  such faith in the testimony of the former detective Sergeant Peter Ehsman, who had told the inquest he believed Grant's story that he was not driving the vehicle and was unaware of any admissions at the scene.

'Had Mr Ehsman undertaken a thorough investigation … he would surely become apprised of these admissions. Mr Ehsman was not open to clear possibility that Mr Grant could be lying.'

The coroner found that there had been evidence of systemic racism or cultural bias within Bourke police in the 1980s.

She said that 'tensions' between the Aboriginal community and police and 'the existence of racial bias within the NSW police force at the time' impacted the investigation into the girls' deaths.

She described the, at least, 'unconscious bias' on the part of Mr Ehsman' as 'deeply troubling'.

Mr Ehsman had told the inquest that it was not unusual for young, unlicensed Aboriginal kids to be driving, notwithstanding that Grant's ute was a manual, not an automatic.

Ms O'Sullivan also found it unconscionable that Cindy and Mona Lisa's mothers -  Dawn and June Smith, who were in court on Tuesday - found out about their daughter's deaths 'from other family members rather than being advised by police'.

'This inquest was their final hope to obtain answers about the circumstances of the deaths of their beloved girls, some form of justice, although decades late,' she said. 

'They were loved dearly by their families. They attended Bourke High School where they were clearly popular... they were inseparable, like sisters.

'Mona and Cindy were young bright girls sparkling with life and excitement, they had big hopes… and dreams.

'The grief and anguish of their passing remains raw for their families.' 

She praised the mothers for pursuing the inquiry into the girls' deaths, saying: 'it's been a long journey. There's been many twists and turns in the road, but you never gave up.' 

The inquest, which was held over seven days in November and December last year, heard disturbing evidence about Grant's sexual behaviour with underage girls, and police indifference.  

After Grant crashed his car, Mona Lisa's body was found partially scalped and lying in dirt metres away, while Grant was found with his arms slung across the exposed breasts of Cindy's body. 

Cindy was laid out on a tarpaulin and her clothing had been pushed up around her neck and down to her ankles.

Two civilian witnesses who first came across the crash scene had observed Cindy's near-naked body lying next to Grant with her legs together.

But the first police officer to arrive thereafter found the girl's legs had been moved - presumably by Grant - to expose her genitals.

Mona Lisa's partially torn off ear was later found at the crash site, not by investigating police, but by her family members.

Grant had the steering wheel of his Toyota removed from the crashed vehicle, which police had failed to seize or properly examine.

His high-powered lawyer argued that Mona Lisa was driving the crashed ute, and the charge of interfering with Cindy’s body was 'no billed', or withdrawn, by prosecutors because of a technicality.

At the trial, which was held in the same court house as the coronial inquest, Cindy's mother was so disgusted by Grant's acquittal that she threw a shoe at the all-white jury. 

After the jury acquitted him, Grant fled the town and later died aged 70 in a nursing home in NSW in 2017.