Fitzgerald inquiry: Where are key figures now?

THEY were the major players in one of the most momentous events in Queensland history. Thirty years on from the seismic Fitzgerald inquiry, where are the crooks, bent cops and corruption busters today?

The youngest judge appointed to the Federal Court, Tony Fitzgerald QC opened the hearings in 1987 by saying he was conducting “an inquiry in into the truth”.

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THEY were the major players in one of the most momentous events in Queensland history. Thirty years on from the seismic Fitzgerald inquiry, The Courier-Mail’s retrospectivecoverage looks at where the crooks, bent police and politicians and the corruption busters who exposed systemic dodgy dealings are today.

The crooks

Hector Hapeta

Hector Brandon Hapeta was the not-so-gentle giant of Queensland vice in the late 1970s and early 80s.

The burly New Zealander was apprenticed in Auckland’s strip club scene before moving to Sydney and later Brisbane where he and his prostitute partner Anne-Marie Tilley established a string of brothels turning over millions of dollars a year. They were also paying corrupt police hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in bribes.

Hauled before the inquiry, he famously refused to answer questions 164 times “in case it might incriminate me”. He was sentenced to eight years’ jail for official corruption and later served time for trafficking.

Hapeta was released from prison in 1995 but re-arrested three years later and again charged with drug trafficking. While awaiting trial, he died of a heart attack in 1998, aged 56.

Anne-Marie Tilley

Hector Hapeta’s right-hand woman (and his de facto since the early 1970s) was a career prostitute who worked in the sex trade in Sydney and Adelaide before moving to Queensland and acquiring the Top of the Valley massage parlour.

Tilley fled to Sydney in 1987 but was arrested the following year and subpoenaed to testify at the inquiry, where she gave evidence of paying up to $39,000 a month to corrupt cop Jack “The Bagman” Herbert.

In 1999, she was jailed for nine years for drug trafficking but released on parole in 2005.

For the past decade, Tilley has worked at Sisters Inside, the women’s prisoner advocacy service.

Geraldo Bellino

Sicilian-born Bellino was a former nightclub dancer and spaghetti bar proprietor accused of running illegal casinos and massage parlours, turning over more than $1 million a year, in partnership with fellow Brisbane vice figure Vittorio ‘Vic’ Conte.

In 1991, he was charged over tax-avoidance schemes and later served seven years’ jail for official corruption.

Bellino, the uncle of Palaszczuk Government Minister Grace Grace, is believed to be living on Brisbane’s northside.

Vittorio ‘Vic’ Conte

Also an Italian immigrant, Conte worked as a waiter for Gerry Bellino before becoming his business partner.

He was accused of paying bribes to Jack Herbert and in 1991 was sentenced to seven years for official corruption.

Conte now runs a Japanese car importing business at Underwood.

The cops

Jack ‘The Bagman’ Herbert

The former London bobby ran corruption racket “The Joke” while serving in the notorious Licensing Branch and collected more than $3 million in bribes from vice figures, the spoils divided among fellow crooked cops, including commissioner Terry Lewis.

Herbert fled to London with wife Peggy when the inquiry began but was arrested. He returned as the inquiry “supergrass” to give evidence against corrupt colleagues after being granted an indemnity against prosecution.

Herbert died of a brain tumour in 2004.

Terry Lewis

In sensational testimony to the inquiry, Jack Herbert said Lewis was hungry for bribes and had enthused: “Little fish are sweet.”

In 1991, Lewis was sentenced to 14 years’ jail after he was found guilty of being in on The Joke, having received more than $600,000 in bribes. While in jail, he was stripped of the knighthood he received from the Queen in 1986.

He was paroled in 1998 but has continued to proclaim his innocence. Two years ago, in his first TV interview since being released from jail, he claimed Fitzgerald “did a job” on him, and he was unaware of corruption during his 11-year reign as police commissioner.

Lewis, 88, lives in a rental in Keperra. Many of the other crooked cops named and shamed at the inquiry, such as former assistant commissioner Graeme Parker, police “Rat Pack” figure Tony Murphy and ex-Licensing Branch boss Allen Bulger, have either died or faded into obscurity.

The politicians

Joh-Bjelke-Petersen

The Premier was visiting Disneyland in 1987 when his deputy Bill Gunn instigated the Fitzgerald inquiry. Sir Joh, who was closely aligned to Terry Lewis, argued against the inquiry where he gave evidence of large sums of money being delivered to his office in paper bags.

After being deposed as National Party leader in November 1987, he resigned as premier just 10 months short of a 20-year reign.

He was later charged with perjury over evidence he gave at the inquiry but the trial ended in a hung jury.

Sir Joh died aged 94 in 2005. Two of his corrupt ministers, Russ Hinze and Don “Shady” Lane, are also dead, along with Gunn.

The corruption busters

Tony Fitzgerald

The youngest judge appointed to the Federal Court, Gerald Edward “Tony” Fitzgerald QC opened the hearings on July 27, 1987, by saying he was conducting “an inquiry in into the truth”. “The issue is no more whether there was any corruption as how much and by whom,’’ he said.

Fitzgerald pursued his mission with a relentless zeal. His watershed three-year inquiry led to senior police and politicians being jailed.

Fitzgerald later served as a judge on the Queensland and NSW Supreme Courts before stepping down in 2001. He is retired on the Sunshine Coast.

In a rare interview, during the 2015 state election campaign, he voiced concerns Queensland was going back to bad old ways under the LNP.

Phil Dickie

The former Courier-Mail investigative journalist, whose Walkley Award-winning exposes helped spark the Fitzgerald inquiry, is now a freelance media consultant in Switzerland. After the inquiry, he worked as an adviser to the Criminal Justice Commission.

Nigel Powell

The former Licensing Branch officer turned whistleblower, who worked with Dickie and Four Corners reporter Chris Masters to expose corruption, became a law clerk and worked for the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption before returning to live in Brisbane.
He is writing a book on his experiences.