Anguish for families as hotel quarantine case collapses, ‘no one held accountable’

No one will be held criminally responsible for a COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine that led to the death of 768 people and one of the world’s longest lockdowns, after a case against the Victorian Department of Health collapsed.

The department claimed victory on Wednesday after the County Court ruled 10 witness statements made to a public inquiry into the bungled hotel quarantine scheme were inadmissible, prompting the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) to drop all 32 charges.

Authorities outside Melbourne’s Intercontinental Hotel in 2021.

“We’re pleased to see this matter resolved, avoiding a lengthy and costly trial in circumstances where there has already been a public inquiry into the hotel quarantine program,” a spokesperson said.

While there were avenues for the OPP to continue to pursue the case further, it chose not to appeal the ruling as a result of the setback.

Spiros Dimitriou, whose 73-year-old father John died after contracting COVID-19 during the 2020 outbreak, said he was disappointed that no one had been held accountable for his death.

“It’s pretty frustrating when there’s no results or actions to come out of it,” he told The Age on Wednesday.

“Both governments have failed in their capacity or duty of care, 100 per cent.

“He shouldn’t have got COVID at all.”

The Coate Inquiry – which delivered its final report in December 2020 – found a multitude of failures in the state government’s hastily established hotel quarantine system had contributed to hundreds of deaths and the infection of 18,000 people.

Dr Vyom Sharma, who worked in hotel quarantine in Victoria from May 2020 to March 2022, told The Age that the scheme “was a well-intended effort that was largely pulled off with some pretty big mistakes”, including the infection prevention breaches.

Sharma said key lessons were learnt through the pandemic, including not to underestimate the potential airborne spread of COVID-19, “which is how a lot of people were exposed to these infections”.

While the Melbourne GP said another pandemic was inevitable, he struggled to see a scenario where a mandatory quarantine system would be imposed again.

“The pandemic has left such a bad taste in people’s mouths that I struggle to imagine just how bad a pandemic would have to be for there to be public acceptability and political palatability for this.”

The 10 witnesses whose testimony was ruled inadmissible in the criminal proceedings brought by WorkSafe Victoria were employees of the Department of Health who had provided statements to the Coate inquiry.

Former judge Jennifer Coate chaired the 2020 inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine system.

In an oral ruling on April 9, Judge Andrew Palmer said “the prosecution is not permitted to use the witness statements or oral evidence provided to the inquiry by the witnesses.”

An OPP spokesman said on Wednesday that the inadmissible evidence of 10 witnesses had “substantially weakened the prosecution case”.

“As a consequence of the evidentiary ruling, a determination was made that there were not reasonable prospects of conviction in relation to the charges before the court,” he said.

Former chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert, KC, said a person was normally protected from self-incrimination when they gave evidence to an inquiry, which meant their evidence could not be used in any other context, including their prosecution.

But, he said, in situations where evidence had been declared inadmissible, prosecutors could start the investigation anew.

“What a prosecution service has to do in this situation is start from scratch and put to one side – not even look at the inquiry that’s been conducted, all the evidence that’s been collected,” he said.

“All they can do is go to the individual witnesses and take fresh statements.”

Palmer also told the court that the witness statements might have been obtained under the powers of the Occupational Health and Safety Act instead, which could have been admissible.

“It is possible that those documents could have been obtained using coercive powers under the [OH&S Act], but that question can be reserved for another day,” Palmer found.

The charges against the health department followed a 15-month WorkSafe Victoria investigation that involved the review of tens of thousands of documents, including those submitted to the inquiry.

It alleged the department had failed to appoint experts in infection prevention and control at the hotels, to provide proper training to security guards or to provide proper instructions around mask-wearing.

In all charges, WorkSafe alleged Victorian government employees and security guards were put at risk of serious illness or death through contracting COVID-19 from returned travellers, other people working in the hotels or from contaminated surfaces.

The watchdog had accused the department of 17 occupational health and safety breaches for failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment for employees. The department was charged with an additional 41 breaches for failing to ensure that non-employees were not exposed to risks to their health and safety. Of those, 16 charges were dropped.

“WorkSafe is deeply disappointed by the decision to discontinue criminal proceedings against the Department of Health in relation to the Victorian hotel quarantine program,” a WorkSafe spokesman said on Wednesday.

WorkSafe said it would review the matter to determine whether to provide advice to the Victorian government on legislative changes to prevent government departments avoiding charges through the use of inquiries.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the dropping of the charges had further eroded Victorians’ expectation of government accountability.

“No matter what the level of the blowout, no matter what the level of the cost is in terms of human life, no one is ever held accountable, they lose confidence in institutions, and they further lose confidence in the government,” he said.

“The sad truth for all Victorians is that after the disaster and the catastrophe of hotel quarantine … no one will be held accountable,” he said. “That’s not acceptable in Victoria.”

Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said she was advised that the charges would be dropped on Tuesday but was not aware of when the decision had been made.

Spiros Dimitriou at his father’s grave in 2020.

Dimitriou said his father had died alone – without his family by his side – in hospital in August 2020 after contracting COVID-19 at St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner.

Although the former print operator had dementia when he died, he still recognised his family, including his nine grandchildren.

“You wouldn’t wish that upon your enemy,” Dimitriou said. “Four years have gone past [and] we still think every single one of those residents, my father included, should still be here with us today.

“This weekend is Greek Easter … he should be celebrating Easter with his family.”

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