Inquest: Not even a laptop for Lindt siege commander
The police commander with the ultimate responsibility for ordering the storming of the Lindt Cafe didn’t even have a laptop that was working - and never got a replacement.
NSW
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The police commander with the ultimate responsibility for ordering the storming of the Lindt Cafe didn’t even have a laptop that was working - and never got a replacement.
The detective chief superintendent has told the inquest into the deadly December 2014 siege of his disappointment at the lack of “intelligence” that was available to him as he took command in what were the final hours of the siege.
The officer, who cannot be named, took over in charge of the forward command post at 10pm on December 15 when police already had a secret audio feed into the cafe.
However he had asked for a video feed and was told it was not possible. The reasons cannot be discussed in open court.
He said he was told that other things he asked for were not available.
“You didn’t have the intelligence that you would have expected to get?” counsel assisting the inquest Jeremy Gormly SC asked him.
“Yes,” the officer said.
He said he had taken his own police laptop with him to the forward command post but for some reason it didn’t work. Even if it had worked, he had no access on it to the principal working log for the siege, called ISURV.
The officer said he sat next to the Tactical Operations Unit officers who did have access to ISURV.
The inquest has heard that the chief superintendent declined to order police to storm the cafe under their emergency action plan at 2.03am on December 16 when six hostages escaped from the cafe and terrorist Man Monis fired his first shot.
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The go-ahead was not given until 10 minutes later after Monis executed the cafe manager Tori Johnson.
Hostage Katrina Dawson died after she was hid by seven fragments of police bullets when TOU officers blasted their way into the cafe at 2.13am.
The inquest before NSW State Coroner Michael Barnes continues.
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