Lindt Siege inquest: Police negotiator admitted he’s not good with technology

THE police negotiator who was supposed to be recording calls from the hostages inside the Lindt Cafe has admitted he’s not good with technology.

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THE police negotiator who ­recorded the lost calls from the hostages inside the Lindt cafe has admitted he’s not good with technology.

The inquest into the deadly December 2014 siege has heard 12 batches of hostage phone calls from around 10am until 1.16pm, which were supposed to be recorded on a dictaphone, were lost and never transcribed.

The primary negotiator, codenamed Peter, yesterday said he had been using the dictaphone. But asked in court if it was a digital machine or if he had used a tape, he said: “I’m not really good with technology ... I know it was a dictaphone.”

Lindt cafe siege victim Tori Johnson / Picture: Channel 7

The latest in a catalogue of technological stuff-ups that faced negotiators was revealed as Peter said he had questioned if the gunman Man Monis was “violent” despite facing a string of sexual assault charges and charges of being an accessory to murder.

Negotiators were trying to talk to Monis through the 18 hostages because the gunman would not talk with them ­directly.

The inquest has heard negotiators spent the first three hours of the siege working out of a 4WD because their police negotiators truck had been out of service since 2011.

About lunchtime they moved into a leagues club where they operated with only one landline and a mobile, meaning some hostage calls were diverted to other lines inside the club. They had neither a laptop nor an iPad, Peter, a senior sergeant, said.

He said it was the first time a dictaphone had been used in a hostage situation in NSW and it was used in the Lindt siege because, “this was a big unusual job”.

He said the dictaphone was not voice-activated and he had to press a button to turn it on and turn it off but he couldn’t recall if a red light came on when it was recording.

Lindt cafe gunman Man Haron Monis.

He said he could remember recording the early hostage calls but he said there were possibly another two dictaphones being used later on, making three.

He said he remembered handing two dictaphones to Tina (another negotiator) at the end of his shift. Tina has yet to give evidence.

His shift ended before police stormed the cafe at 2.13am on December 16 after Monis shot dead cafe manager Tori Johnson. Barrister Katrina Dawson died after being hit by fragments of police bullets.

Peter said he had earlier questioned if Monis would follow through with threats of violence because he had never committed an “act of violence himself” before.

The accessory to murder charge involved Monis allegedly encouraging someone else to commit the murder.

Peter said the alleged 40 sexual assaults on Monis’ clients as a spiritual healer had been violent but had been committed in a “passive environment”.

“There was no anger or weapons used,’’ Peter said.