Lindt Cafe siege inquest: NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione grilled over debacle
POLICE chief Andrew Scipione and his deputy Cath Burn coul have ordered an assault on the Lindt cafe while the hostages were still alive, inquest hears.
NSW
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POLICE chief Andrew Scipione and his deputy Cath Burn could have ordered an assault on the Lindt cafe while the hostages were still alive, it has been revealed.
While both the top cops have said that counter-terrorism protocols meant they had to be hands-off operational matters during the siege management, Ms Burn yesterday acknowledged at the siege inquest that they could have intervened if needed.
As the final two witnesses in the marathon 19-month inquest into the deadly 2014 attack, Mr Scipione was also questioned about why an email he sent to commanders on the night of the siege to have a YouTube video taken down “asap” was not an order.
At 11.59pm, after both he and Ms Burn had gone home, Mr Scipione sent an email to commanders attaching a link to the video uploaded from the cafe on the order of terrorist gunman Man Monis.
It included hostage Marcia Mikhael criticising the police for “doing nothing”.
“Gents this has just been sent to me. Let’s move to have it pulled down from YouTube asap. I will leave it to you” said the email to the police commander Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins, a media officer and Acting Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy, who had taken over from Ms Burn at that time.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Jeremy Gormly SC, put it to him that the email was “as close to a direction as you could get” and he had been taking an active role in operational matters without considering the consequences of the impact removing the video might have in the cafe. “I disagree,” Mr Scipione said.
Mr Scipione said it was not a direction but left it up to the officers to decide what to do. He later found out via the police log that at 11.35pm officers had already been considering pulling down the video.
“Do you accept that it (the email) reads as a direction and it would have been reasonable for those who received it to perceive it as a direction?” Mr Gormly said.
Mr Scipione: “I wouldn’t say so.”
Mr Gormly: “Did you pull this down because it was critical of the police?”
Mr Scipione: “Absolutely not, not an issue.”
On the last day of evidence, the inquest returned to a major issue — why police did not have a so-called direction plan (DA) ready if needed to go into the cafe under their own initiative.
The plan would have allowed police to storm the cafe under their own initiative and take terrorist Man Monis by surprise.
Instead they waited until after manager Tori Johnson was murdered at 2.13am. Barrister Katrina Dawson was fatally wounded by fragments of police bullets.
Mr Scipione denied telling Mr Jenkins, who was in charge in the final fatal moments of the siege, in a phone call earlier that evening that a DA was a “last resort”.
Mr Jenkins has given two accounts of a note made by his scribe after Mr Scipione called him at 10.57pm at the police command centre.
“DA plan to occur as a last resort — COP (commissioner of police)” the police log stated.
At first Mr Jenkins said that it was Mr Scipione who had told him that plan was a “last resort”. Then he changed his evidence and said that it was he, Mr Jenkins, who had made that comment.
At the time, a DA plan had not been approved, and never was because of Monis’ claims that he had a bomb.
“While I don’t recall the exact words, I recall the purpose of the conversation,” Ms Scipione said. He said it was a “welfare call”.
“I recall I didn’t use the words DA plan to occur as a last resort.”
He defended not asking his police commanders why they had not approved a DA.
Ms Burn was earlier questioned about a DA.
“Other than the police commander, is it the case that it was only you or the police commissioner who had the power to require the police commander to launch or not launch a DA?” Mr Gormly asked.
Ms Burn; “Yes.”
Mr Scipione said he had no personal policy as to whether a DA plan should not be used because it involved too much risk to the hostages and to the police.
LAWYERS FIGHTING FURY AT INQUEST
Janet Fife-Yeomans
THE highly-paid barristers appearing at the Lindt Cafe siege inquest turned on each other yesterday as Deputy Commissioner Cath Burn was quizzed in the witness box.
They accused each other of being reprehensible, disgusting and improper. The blizzard of insults was sparked by questions by Gabrielle Bashir SC, counsel for the family of slain hostage Tori Johnson, about whether Ms Burn had been monitoring what was happening at the cafe after she went home about 10.10pm as hostages remained in the cafe in fear for their lives.
Ms Burn was asked if she had been watching what happened at 2.03am on December 16 which was when the terrorist Man Monis first fired his shotgun after a group of hostages fled the cafe.
Counsel for the police, Ian Freckelton QC, leapt red-faced to his feet and accused Ms Bashir of “an ongoing attempt to sully the good name” of Ms Burn, who is also the state’s head of counter-terrorism.
“You have evidence before you that she was ordered home so that she could be fresh in the morning,” Mr Freckelton said.
“This is improper. It’s reprehensible. It should not be allowed.”
Next on his feet was Phillip Boulten SC, counsel for the family of barrister Katrina Dawson who died after being hit by fragments of police bullets when police stormed the cafe.
Mr Boulten said he did not know what evidence Mr Freckelton had been listening to but he could not see anything wrong.
He said it was “disgusting” for Mr Freckelton to attack a fellow barrister’’.
NSW State Coroner Michael Barnes disallowed the question.
TOO FEW POLICE WALK THE STREETS
Mark Morri
THE police shortage has become so chronic in some areas of Sydney that beat policing is under threat or non-existent.
Internal police documents show there are more than 500 positions “vacant’’ for frontline police in the Sydney Metropolitan area and local commanders are so desperate to keep staff that transfers request are blocked automatically.
Things are so dire that in the Premier’s own electorate of the northern beaches an order has been given that applications for transfers or leave without pay are banned, with figures showing the area is 26 constables under strength.
Areas such as Leichardt, with 17, and Bankstown, with 20, are similarly severely under-resourced.
“The NSW Police hierarchy need to deliver a transparent system based on workload which ensures police are where they are needed,’’ acting Police Association president, Tony King said.
They argue that recruitments have not been able to keep pace with resignations, retirements and promotions, with uniformed officers often being “pilfered’’ to boost numbers for special taskforces and specialist squads.
“Police strength must match population growth. NSW has the lowest police to population level of all the states in Australia,” he said.
The Police NSW website claims the force is currently 136 positions understrength but that figure will be wiped out when 208 officers graduate from the academy this Friday.
The Daily Telegraph spoke to several senior officers all over the city yesterday who said frontline policing was an issue.
“Having a couple of uniform officers stroll down the mall and engage in visible policing is not possible at all in some commands,’’ one officer said.
“The official figure in no way reflects the reality.’’
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