Tammy Shipley drank 67 glasses of water before her death in custody from water intoxication, inquest hears | Indigenous Australians

The forensic investigation stated that Tammy Shipley was recorded on CCTV to drink at least 67 glasses of water in the 12 hours before she died in custody due to water poisoning.

The 47-year-old mother of five died while in custody at Silverwater women’s reformatory in New South Wales on December 20, 2022, after being arrested on petty theft charges.

The inquest into his death began in September 2024 but was postponed after the police commissioner challenged the coroner’s jurisdiction to also examine the circumstances of Shipley’s detention that led to his arrest.

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The NSW supreme court ruled that the coroner’s jurisdiction extends to the circumstances in which Shipley remained in custody despite his mental illness in the days leading up to his death. The inquest resumed on Monday under the supervision of state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.

In her opening address to the week-long hearing, barrister Peggy Dwyer SC, assisting the coroner, said Shipley had a long history of mental health illnesses, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, substance abuse and suicide attempts.

The inquest previously heard that NSW police did not tell either the NSW corrections service or custody management officers that Shipley was suffering from a range of mental health issues.

The coroner is currently assessing whether there are adequate mental health indicators in police and custody management systems to help manage people with complex mental health problems, and suggests the system could be updated to notify police in a similar way to the system used to alert about a history of domestic violence.

Shipley said he did not suffer from any mental health problems, although he had previously been investigated by police under the mental health act over concerns that he was experiencing delusions about his neighbours.

During his arrest, he told officers he heard voices in his head and that they “wouldn’t stop talking in his mind.”

Dwyer said on the day Shipley died, CCTV recorded him drinking from a red glass at least 67 times between 12.33pm and 11.51am. He was also seen drinking excessive amounts of water two days ago.

“During this time Tammy appeared to be consuming water from the tap,” Dwyer told the court.

Dwyer said the glass can hold 300ml of water.

“So that means that on December 20th alone, Tammy probably consumed at least 20 liters of water. And it’s not possible to calculate the amount of water she consumed leading up to that.”

The court heard Shipley collapsed on his bed at 11.55am and began vomiting and defecating. Dwyer said he appeared to be “spasming” in CCTV footage from his cell which was previously shown to the court.

Although officers passed by the cell at 12:27 and 12:41, prison guards did not notice Shipley’s condition until 1:15 p.m., Dwyer said. His view into the cell from the corridor was blocked by shutters, he told the court.

“At 12:27 p.m., an officer walked by the fifth cell where Tammy was located, and the cell was not visible from the outside, but if someone had looked inside they would have seen Tammy taking over the bed,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer said the alarm was activated after a prison officer opened the hatch on the cell door and tried to talk to Shipley. He said a prison psychiatrist had attended the cell as part of a planned visit before two prison nurses saw Shipley at 1:35 p.m.

“Nurse Murphy and nurse McCarthy attempted to contact Tammy through the opened hatch… and discovered Tammy was unresponsive,” Dwyer told the court.

“Every attempt was made to resuscitate Tammy and perform CPR, but tragically it was too late.”

An autopsy found that Shipley’s cause of death was hyponatremia caused by extremely low sodium levels due to polydipsia (experiencing unquenchable thirst) and complications of schizoaffective disorder.

The investigation continues.

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