Friends of Adelaide woman allegedly raped by Christian Porter criticise NSW police for blocking detectives’ travel
NSW police blocked detectives’ request to come to SA to interview a woman accusing Christian Porter of rape. Her friends are dismayed she never got the meeting.
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Friends of an Adelaide woman who alleged she was raped by former federal attorney-general Christian Porter have criticised NSW Police for failing to interview her during COVID-19 border bans.
Official documents reveal NSW police top brass blocked requests from detectives to travel to South Australia in March last year.
Mr Porter vehemently denies the allegations.
NSW Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad detectives from Strike Force Wyndarra applied on March 10 last year for a $4083.70 trip to Adelaide to interview her over two days.
This was the same day new interstate travel restrictions came into force but not bans.
The four-day trip, which SA Police were keen to assist with, was approved by the squad’s commander.
But on March 13, NSW deputy Police Commissioner Dave Hudson rejected it despite a warning Mr Porter was “a very high-profile POI (person of interest) and a detailed statement is required”.
“Insufficient detail provided by SCC to justify why this travel cannot be deferred in accordance with Commissioners Direction and Government Policy precluding international travel and restricting interstate travel to operational necessity,” he notes in a handwritten letter.
But speaking on behalf of a group of friends pushing for an independent inquiry into her death, Sunday Mail columnist Nick Ryan expressed their collective dismay.
The friends include a TV executive, a fashion designer, writers, legal figures, MPs as well as business and arts leaders. “We’ve always been saddened that (she) was never able to make her formal statement,” Ryan said.
“We’re disappointed to learn there was significant willingness within sections of NSW Police to make that happen but not in others. We know what it meant to her.
“(The) developments (with NSW Police) raise questions rather than provide answers.”
The woman’s former lawyer, Michael Bradley, also criticised NSW Police.
“I am surprised that the police did not seem to apply any priority to the case given the circumstances,” he said.
“It seems to have been a pretty laidback approach, which is surprising.”
The 69-page dossier, released to the NSW Parliament, also reveals police made a welfare check via email two days before the woman died along with inquiries about her finally making a formal statement after many delays.
She was home alone in quarantine at her eastern suburbs home having earlier returned from Melbourne.
NSW Police have said the woman withdrew her complaint on June 23 last year, citing “health and personal reasons”.
The woman, whom The Advertiser is not naming, took her own life aged 49 – the day after withdrawing her complaint to NSW Police.
Mr Porter rejects as completely false the allegation he raped the woman in 1988 and has launched defamation action against the ABC. The State Coroner is investigating her death.
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