Gordon Copeland’s friend says he feared police on night of NSW drowning

Jabour Clarke, 21, tells family during inquest he is sorry' and says he thought Copeland had been arrested or gotten away

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A friend of a Gomeroi man who drowned in a Moree river has told the man's family at an inquest he is very sorry" for failing to tell authorities the deceased man, Gordon Copeland, was with him on the night he died, and that at the time he was scared of the police.

Copeland, a 22-year-old father of three, drowned in the Gwydir River in the early hours of 10 July 2021. The NSW coroner is examining the death, and counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer, told the inquest Copeland went into the water after police followed the vehicle in which he was a passenger, mistakenly thinking it was stolen.

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