2004 Redfern Riots

The 2004 Redfern riots took place on the evening of Saturday, 14 February 2004 in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern sparked by the death of Thomas 'T.J.' Hickey, a 17-year-old Indigenous Australian.

Hickey was riding home on his bicycle from his mother's house when he was supposed to have spotted a police car and assumed it was chasing him. There was an outstanding arrest warrant in his name, but police have consistently maintained that the patrol car was searching for a different individual, wanted in connection with a violent bag snatch at Redfern railway station earlier the same day.

Shortly thereafter, Hickey lost control of his bicycle while turning a corner and was impaled in a 2.5-metre high metal fence causing penetrating injuries of the neck and chest. According to the police, they arrived at the scene quickly, but were unable to save him as "The injury was probably non-survivable."

The Hickey family and supporters fiercely dispute this version of events, however. They claim that witnesses saw Hickey's bike clipped by the police car, thus propelling him onto the fence, a claim supported by the testimony of two Aboriginal Liaison Officers to a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the death. Neither of the Aboriginal Liaison Officers were present at the scene and one of the Aboriginal Liaison Officers, Paul Wilkinson was later judged as being 'well-versed in deception and motivated by self-interest' when receiving a 28 year custodial sentence for murdering his pregnant girlfriend and burning her body in the house he shared with his wife. Despite this new evidence leading to calls to re-open the coronial inquest, the New South Wales government has refused to do so.

Doubt remains over the veracity of some of the additional evidence, however, with one of the Aboriginal Police Liaison Officers, Paul James Wilkinson, later admitting to the murder of his pregnant girlfriend five months prior to making the allegations. Wilkinson pleaded guilty to murder on 12 November 2008.