A coronial inquest starts today into the unexplained death of a man in Broome, that led to a wrongful conviction. The man's family has been pushing for the inquest for years.
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00:00It's been 14 years since the death of 21-year-old tradesman Joshua Warnakee in Broome.
00:08In the early hours of the 26th of February 2010, a taxi driver found Mr Warnakee's body
00:13here on Old Broome Road.
00:15It was only moments after he was last seen walking home after spending a night out with
00:19friends.
00:20It was initially treated as a suspected hit and run.
00:23That later changed to the belief that Mr Warnakee might have been killed by an edged weapon.
00:28Mr Warnakee's mother, Ingrid Bishop, spoke to the ABC back in 2010.
00:32If you know of anything, the smallest thing, can you please come forward?
00:36We just, we need as much information as possible.
00:39For years, Miss Bishop has been asking for a coronial inquest after a botched police
00:44investigation led to a wrongful conviction.
00:46In 2014, Kiwakura man Gene Gibson was convicted of Mr Warnakee's death.
00:52A Corruption and Crime Commission report later found police conducted flawed interviews with
00:56Mr Gibson and failed to provide him with an interpreter despite being barely able to
01:01speak or read English.
01:03Mr Gibson spent almost five years in prison before being released.
01:07A renewed police investigation found Mr Warnakee might have been struck by a car rather than
01:12a handheld weapon.
01:14The inquest starts today, here in Broome, before moving to Perth in three days.