Five Gunned Down, Court Told

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday February 15, 1989

By TONY HEWETT

JABIRU: Dennis Dumbiri Rostron allegedly pondered the murder of five members of his family the day before he allegedly gunned them down at a remote outstation in southern Arnhem Land last September, the Northern Territory's Court of Summary Jurisdiction was told yesterday.

Rostron, 25, murdered his two sons, Preston and Zorac, because his wife, Cecily, whom he also shot, had told him that they were not fathered by him, a NT Crown Prosecutor, Mr Jack Karczewski, told the Jabiru court.

Mr Karczewski said Rostron also killed his mother-in-law, Dolly Murrumurru, by shooting her in the head with a .308 calibre rifle after she survived an earlier blast from a single-barrel shotgun.

Rostron, who sat with his arms crossed and an impassive expression on his face during the first day of his committal proceedings, is charged with five counts of murder. He has not yet entered a plea.

At the Marlgawo outstation on September 25 last year, Mr Karczewski said, Rostron also murdered his father-in-law, the acclaimed Aboriginal bark painter Dick Murrumurru. Another man, Andrew Narrorga, apparently died of a heart attack as he fled the outstation after the shootings.

Those who died were either sitting or lying in the shade at the time of their death, Mr Karczewski said.

The bodies were discovered two days after the shootings by a medical team on a routine trip.

The nurse, Ms Kerry Mahon, told the court that after arriving at Marlgawo, she walked to the camp as they had not been met.

"As I passed the radio shed, I saw ... people," she said. "I realised that something was drastically wrong. It didn't feel right.

"Then I realised that the entire people were dead."

The first body she saw was a male child, lying with his head down. She felt the pulse, "out of instinct," she said. Another body, a male, was lying face down with an outstretched arm.

Ms Mahon said a female body had a hole the size of a 50 cent piece in the back of its head.

Mr Karczewski, in outlining the prosecution's evidence against Rostron, said death had been "instantaneous".

"Each died where they were shot. When he (Rostron) fired ... he intended to kill," he said.

After the shootings Rostron had fled with the shotgun and was at large for nine days.

Mr Karczewski alleged the killings took place after a series of arguments between Rostron and his wife about her failure to buy batteries during a shopping trip.

"He (Rostron) regarded this as part of her general failings in her domestic responsibilities to him," Mr Karczewski said.

Esau Djanjomerr, his sister Shirley, Abraham Dakalwuy, Lena and Patricia Narrorga also gave evidence yesterday.

Patricia Narrorga said in evidence: "I saw Dennis holding the gun. He was shooting people."

The hearing, before magistrate Mr Clive McPherson, continues today.

© 1989 Sydney Morning Herald

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