Croc Hunter's wife given tapes of his death

Australian officials have given the footage of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin’s fatal encounter with a stingray to his wife and may destroy any remaining copies to prevent them being made public, according to media reports.

Queensland State Coroner Michael Barnes told News Ltd. Newspapers that officials had given a tape documenting Irwin’s death to his American-born wife, Terri, in late December.

Barnes said he was also considering breaking with police protocol and destroying all remaining copies to ensure they are never leaked to the public or posted on the internet.

Irwin, 44, died in September after he was stabbed in the chest by a stingray’s poisonous barb while filming a documentary on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Under normal police procedures, any film or audio evidence of a death is returned to its owners and a copy is made for the state files to be held in perpetuity.

But Barnes said police had told him the footage could be sold to pay-per-view internet sites for as much as AUS$1m (€600,000) a copy.

“We have an obligation to ensure it isn’t leaked, and it is very difficult to maintain security over those sorts of things when they are put into archives or wherever else,” Barnes told the newspaper.

In an interview with US television last September, Terri Irwin said she had not seen the film of her husband’s death and that it should never be made public.