Queensland Police employee suspended, to appear in court over alleged DV leak

A Queensland Police employee has been suspended and faced court for the first time after allegedly accessing information from the QPS system and releasing it to a DV respondent.

A Queensland Police employee has been suspended and faced court for the first time after allegedly accessing information from the QPS system and releasing it to a DV respondent.

The person, who is alleged to have paid for the information, is accused of using the information to stalk a DV aggrieved.

Carol Kellaway, a 46-year-old woman from the Road Policing and Regional Support Command was served with the notice to appear for one count of unlawful stalking (DV offence), two charges of computer hacking (gain benefit) and two charges of Computer Hacking (Simpliciter).

A statement from the Queensland Police Service said the information was allegedly accessed between 2021 and 2023.

Carol Kellaway leaves Brisbane Magistrates Court. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Acting Commissioner Steve Gollschewski described said the alleged actions of a QPS employee, if proven, were “completely unacceptable”, revealing the alleged breach was discovered “internally”.

“This is probably one of the worst things that we have to deal with,” he said.

“Firstly I’ll say that we are a big organisation and whilst any one of these incidents happening is unacceptable, it happens from time to time.

“The one thing that I take out of it, that’s make me confident is that we picked up on it, that it was picked up internally, investigated by the police and the action has been taken by us so we have dealt with this.”

Acting Commissioner Steve Gollschewski. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Gollschewski said the QPS has “robust systems in place to make sure that our systems are protected and that the information is protected”.

“In this instance someone has allegedly, deliberately done the wrong thing,” he said

“I know there is much to be done in the (domestic and family violence) space and one of the real things that needs to be done is that we properly support victim survivors.”

Kellaway’s lawyer, Tegan Crighton, asked for an adjournment so the matter could be case conferenced with prosecutors.

Magistrate Mark Nolan adjourned the matter to April 22.

Kellaway remains on bail.