Lindt siege inquest: Police boss Mick Fuller pushes for ‘shoot to kill’ clarity

EXCLUSIVE: POLICE Commissioner Mick Fuller wants laws to make it clearer his officers can “shoot to kill” during terror hostage situations.

• LINDT STORY — Chapter 1: How a devil played us for fools
• Chapter 2: ‘The country is under attack’
• Chapter 3: The race to name a terrorist madman
• Chapter 4: The gunman and his hostages
• Chapter 5: Dead calm and then a storm
• Chapter 6: Staring death in the eyes

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller wants laws to make it clearer his officers can “shoot to kill” during terror hostage situations like the Lindt Cafe siege.

Coroner Michael Barnes found police snipers trained on madman Man Monis during the Lindt tragedy were reluctant to pull the trigger even if they had a clear shot because they feared being prosecuted for unlawfully killing him.

“It may be that the special powers available to police responding to terrorist incidents should include a more clearly defined right to use force,’’ Mr Barnes recommended in damning assessment of the 2014 attack.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller leaves the room after speaking at a press conference in response to the Lindt Cafe siege inquest findings on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

The Daily Telegraph understands Mr Fuller will lobby the NSW government to give his officers legal protection when they “have to take a life to save a life’’.

It is understood Mr Fuller has already formed a working party to look at all recommendations by Mr Barnes.

The immediate focus is to make sure as quickly as possible his men have the confidence to do their job without legal fears.

NSW Police Minister Troy Grant, a former police officer, is believed to be in support of changing the legislation.

“The snipers and the police commanders believed that police did not have lawful authority to shoot Monis because he did not pose an imminent or immediate danger to the hostages,” Mr Barnes found.

A police sniper aiming at the Lindt store during the siege. Picture: Channel 7

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“That belief was an unduly restrictive view of their powers. I can readily appreciate why individual officers might be inclined to take a cautious approach to interpreting their powers.

“Their careers and even their own liberty could hinge on the later concurrence by others in the criminal justice system that their resort to deadly force was justified.”

Coroner Barnes was also critical of the way police treated the families of the hostages and the victims during the siege — calling their treatment “insensitive.’’

It can today be revealed Mr Fuller wrote to the families of those murdered after taking on the top cop role to express his sympathies and offer to meet them personally.

Lindt siege gunman Man Monis.

‘EXPERT’ DOCTOR IS UNDER THE GUN

Emma Partridge

POLICE are reviewing the contract of the consulting psychiatrist whose “unrealistic” and “erroneous” advice during the Lindt cafe siege was partly to blame for officers not storming the building earlier.

Coroner Michael Barnes slammed his “suboptimal” assessments.

And the families of siege victims Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson believe he should be prohibited from participating in any future siege responses.

The psychiatrist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is highly respected in his field and has been working on major inquests and homicide investigations for the NSW Police during the past two decades.

He works at a Sydney private practice and provides his services to NSW Police on a case-by-case basis.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch told an inquest into the deaths arising out of the siege that his advice that Monis was simply “grandstanding” led him to the conclusion “that Monis did not present a sufficient risk to ­justify pursuing an interventionist strategy”.

Coroner Barnes said his advice crossed over from expressing views into human behaviour. “The advice the consultant psychiatrist gave ... was unrealistic,” Coroner Barnes said.

The Coroner has recommended NSW Police expand its panel of psychological advisers and the range of disciplines it consults.