Courts / Melbourne, VIC

John Makai was unresponsive when dragged from a Victoria police van. Just one of many ‘shortcomings’ inquest has heard so far

4 Oct 2026 06:00 AEDT Summary

Deaths in Custody Australian Police and Policing

From the report

As the Victorian coroner’s court heard this week, it was not clear which of these mistakes contributed to Makai’s death in September 2023.

Headline check

All three things this headline claims are in the report.

Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. How this is checked

This is a summary. The indicators are not. Every score on this page was measured over the full 1211-word report, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.

How it is written

Niral Score 14.8 · mostly calm mundaneloaded

10 more readings adjectives, repeated words, sentiment, sourcing and 1 more and 5 at zero

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

police25station9custody8van8court7cell6dragged6house6ambulance5arrived5head5inquest5arriving4care4died4injury4required4shortcomings4week4assessment3back3carried3case3conduct3coroner3evidence3family3hospital3hours3made3medical3mistakes3paramedics3son3think3unresponsive3acknowledged2acknowledges2action2adequate2admitting2apology2assess2away2brain2cells2clear2collapsed2coma2days2death2deteriorated2didn’t2dignified2drink2employees2every2face2failed2failure2and 29 more

Sentiment -0.3 hostilefavourable Sourcing 64 unattributednamed sources Mood 11.2 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

How the article is written, not whether it is correct. How each is measured.

Measured on The Guardian Australia’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

Outlet	Niral Score
The Guardian Australiaas they published this story	14.8

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