You don’t know what people have planned’: Former PM bodyguard reveals ‘nightmare’ on job
“‘When I got the call to head the investigations for the Bali bombings in 2005, I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “What the hell, how did you end up here?”’, writes former AFP agent David Craig.
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He’s been a bodyguard for three prime ministers, led the Bali bombings investigations in 2005 that ultimately led to finding South East Asia’s most wanted terrorist at the time and much more. Former Australian Federal Police (AFP) Detective superintendent, David Craig, 58, shares the highs, lows and toughest times of his decades-long career and how he ended up on Channel 10’s new TV show, Hunted.
When I got the call to head the investigations for the Bali bombings in 2005, I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “What the hell, how did you end up here?”
There was a lot of pressure. We had to track down South East Asia’s most-wanted terrorist at the time, Azahari Husin. He designed the bombs for the first Bali attack in 2002 (which killed 202 people) and the Jakarta embassy bombing in 2004 and then the three synchronised attacks in Bali in 2005 which killed four Australians, 15 Indonesians and injured 109 people. It was a big investigation and I was in charge of it.
I had no exposure to terrorism investigations prior to that point.
I had been asked to step in as the national commander for counter terrorism for a two-week training period. I’d been in a similar position before for different portfolios like fraud, narcotics and intelligence so I thought I’d give it a go, it’s only for two weeks, what could possibly go wrong?
Obviously, a lot can go wrong, three synchronised bombs can go wrong.
It happened in my first couple of days on the job but there was no room for self-doubt. There were dead Australians, injured people and our country needed a good response and I was ready to go.
A year before those bombings, there’d been a confirmed biological attack on the Indonesian embassy in Canberra. I’d worked on a joint Indonesian-Australian task force into that investigation. So, when the Bali bombings happened, I had worked with some of the same Indonesian police and had built a level of trust.
There was a team of about 50 AFP in Bali and everyone was working around the clock to track Azahari (Husin) down. We knew what he was capable of and didn’t know what he’d do next.
They don’t get any worse than Islamic cowards who want to blow people up in God’s name.
It was a crime as ugly as they come. I wrote a book about it and my experience with the investigation called Defeating Terror.
After a few years of talks, it’s currently in development with Australian producers to become a movie. Daniel Macpherson is set to play me in the film which is a great choice. It will be a surreal moment to see it on the big screen, I just see it as a job I had to do.
I get asked what it takes to do that kind of work and the answer is always the same, you have to have a strong sense of justice and you have to be relentless in its pursuit.
As a cop, I was part of major investigations, undercover operations, and spent time in East Timor on a peacekeeping mission.
All of it was to hopefully make a difference to the safety and justice of our community. One of the most critical operations I worked on was in 1995-1997, on the NSW Police Royal Commission into police corruption.
I went undercover to expose police doing armed robberies and dealing heroin. I was in some very dangerous and risky situations. There was the possibility I could have been shot.
So many things can go wrong but you have to stay focused on the job you’re trained to do. You also have to put aside your own views or beliefs when your job is to protect others.
This was especially the case when I was bodyguard for three prime minsters (Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard) at various times when they visited Queensland.
I also protected Pauline Hansen in 1999, which was interesting to say the least. People either loved or hated her but either way they wanted to confront her and that’s a nightmare when you’re protecting someone; you don’t know what people have planned.
Growing up, I didn’t always want to be a cop. I was born in Mackay and my childhood was spent between Mackay and Rockhampton.
After school, I went to the coal mines and did a radio mechanic trade and spent a few years doing that before I decided to pursue my passion for racing motorcycles. I did that for about five years between 1984 and 1989.
I won a few state championships, claimed a world land speed record and a few things like that. But, ultimately, I thought I needed to get my act together and find a proper career.
Because of my trade experience, I was hired by Telstra (Telecom at the time) as an electronic counter surveillance specialist to find any illegal intercepts or phone bugs on the network. I ran all the investigations for Queensland and NSW for about three years.
I think that gave me an edge into the Australian Federal Police. At the time, they were only taking people with degrees and I didn’t have one but somehow, I got in. I was about 24.
I started in AFP communications answering the radio in Brisbane before I went into fraud and general crime, intelligence and narcotics.
I became the officer in charge of AFP North Queensland, which covered Gladstone to New Guinea, and later Detective superintendent before retiring in 2013.
A standout moment came early on in my career when I found myself uncovering drugs as part of Australia’s biggest ever importation of cannabis hash at the time. It was in 1994 and it was Operation Caribou.
There was a five-tonne importation of cannabis hash into Queensland and three tonnes of it was missing after the AFP search warrants and everyone was looking for it. I found it.
I was patrolling the crime scene which was a boat and even though it had already been searched, I noticed some things didn’t make sense. I started looking underneath the boat and saw a wall that looked out of place. I broke apart the wall and there it was, over three tonnes of hash worth $225 million.
I sound like I make this stuff up; it certainly has been a crazy career.
Since I left the force, I set up my own covert operations consultancy and life hasn’t been any less crazy. I’m now part of a show on Channel 10, Hunted, where I’m the chief hunter.
Ordinary Australians become fugitives and I’m part of the team who has to hunt them down. It was a very realistic, relentless and intense experience and I absolutely loved it.
Above all the things I’ve done, I’m a husband to my beautiful wife, who has been the rock of the family, and a father of four. My family is everything.
I don’t want to hold myself out to be some sort of hero. I am definitely not and everything I’ve done is part of a huge team who has made it all possible.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes, I’ve miscalculated things, I’ve misread risks and I’m a very normal person. My career has given me perspective.
You see the best and the worst of people and most of the time I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or perhaps, the right place at the right time.
Hunted airs on Channel 10 at 7.30pm from Sunday-Tuesday.
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