Nick Kaldas: Retiring Deputy Police Commissioner dealt with the very worst evil
IN HIS 34 years as a police officer, Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas made a lot of friends and a few enemies — including a major Sydney crime family who took out a contract on his life when he was working during an undercover operation.
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IN HIS 34 years as a police officer, Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas made a lot of friends and a few enemies — including a major Sydney crime family who took out a contract on his life when he was working during an undercover operation.
“It was some years ago and those involved went to extreme lengths to get information about me. It’s not something I want to dwell on but they were deadly serious,” he revealed when reflecting on his career in a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Kaldas has worked in nearly every branch of the State Crime Command as a detective or commander, including a 10-year stint in the Homicide Squad — four of those as its boss.
“During that time I oversaw some great detective work into the death of Samantha Knight and, while we caught her killer, it still sits with me that we never found her body,’’ he said.
Another high-profile murder investigation which he remembers vividly was the assassination of Cabramatta MP John Newman in 1994 — the first political assassination in this country.
“He was a sociopath and ran Cabramatta for his own benefit at the time,’’ he said of Phuong Ngo, who was eventually convicted of the murder in 2001 and jailed for life.
At the time of the murder, Ngo was well connected in the ALP and a political opponent of the state MP, who was gunned down outside his home in Cabramatta on Ngo’s orders.
Despite repeated appeals and a judicial inquiry, Ngo still claims his innocence.
“I had face-to-face meetings with Ngo. He was able to manipulate a lot of people, including politicians, into thinking he was innocent, which he isn’t. He did a lot of damage to that community,’’ Mr Kaldas said.
Mr Kaldas was also head of homicide when 21-year-old law student Sef Gonzales stabbed and bashed his father Teddy, 46, mother Mary Loiva Josephine, 43, and sister Clodine, 18, inside the family’s Ryde family home in 2001.
Gonzales was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison in 2004.
More recently, in 2013, Sydney streets were awash with blood as rival factions from a violent crime gang, Brothers For Life, embarked on an internal war.
The then-premier Barry O’Farrell personally asked Mr Kaldas to take charge of the problem of escalating gun crime.
He formed a special strike force called Talon which saw public shooting incidents almost disappear.
“Brothers for Life are nothing more than a violent street gang,” he said of his part in their dismantling.
“Like bike gangs they are cowards. Bikies when alone turn on each other. They have no code of honour ... they have no honour.’’
Mr Kaldas, who was born in Egypt and came to Australia as an 11-year-old, said when he looks back on his 34-year career, he is proud of many of his achievements, including his part in forming the Joint Counter Terrorism Squad.
But it was his work with many ethnic communities he is most proud of.
He hopes he leaves a strong legacy, particularly with Arabic youth.
Mr Kaldas is the first person from a non-English speaking background to reach the rank of deputy police commissioner.
“I would like to think in some small way I act as a role model and inspire the younger generation to work with the system. I would hope they dive in and do not think about a glass ceiling — be proud of your heritage but revel in the democracy we live in,’’ he said.
Mr Kaldas has accepted a position with the United Nations which will keep him and his wife, journalist Natalie O’Brien, overseas for the next few months.
It’s not the first time Mr Kaldas’ experience has been sought overseas.
In 2004, he spent eight months in Iraq training local police and in 2009 was seconded to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon which helped catch the killers of Lebanon’s prime minister Rafic Hariri.
HIGH PROFILE CASES
SAMANTHA KNIGHT KILLING
Samantha Knight was nine years old when she vanished from Imperial Ave, Bondi, on August 19, 1986. In 2001 Michael Guider pleaded guilty to her manslaughter. Kaldas was head of homicide and oversaw the investigation leading to Guider’s conviction. Samantha’s body has never been found
GONZALES FAMILY MURDERS
In July 2001 Sef Gonzales, a 21-year-old law student, stabbed and bashed his father, Teddy, 46, mother Mary Loiva Josephine, 43, and sister Clodine, 18, inside the Ryde family home. Kaldas was head of homicide when police charged Gonzales. Gonzales was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2004
JOHN NEWMAN ASSASSINATION
MP John Newman was shot and killed outside his home in Cabramatta on September 5, 1994. Kaldas was the detective who headed the investigation. Fairfield councillor Phuong Ngo, a local club owner and political opponent, was charged and convicted of the killing in 2001. “He was a sociopath and ran Cabramatta for his own benefit at the time,” Kaldas said of Ngo.
BROTHERS FOR LIFE TAKEN DOWN
Convicted killer and Goulburn Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy formed Brothers For Life. In 2013 an internal power struggle led to a massive spike in public place shootings between gang members which ended after the formation of Strike Force Talon and the arrest of large numbers of BLF members. Kaldas was instrumental in forming the strike force responsible for crushing the gang.
CONTROL THE POWERS OF OUR POLICE WATCHDOGS
Mark Morri
NICK Kaldas has criticised successive state governments for being “disinterested’’ in addressing the unfettered powers given to the ICAC, the Ombudsman and the Police Integrity Commission which he says have unfairly ruined the lives and careers of people, particularity police officers.
Mr Kaldas has called on the Baird government to fix the dangerous imbalance and abuse of civil rights given to these investigative bodies in NSW over the years.
“They have extraordinary powers that bypass fundamental rights such as the right to silence and are not matched with extraordinary checks and balances that come with these powers,” he said.
“It is disappointing for all those who work so hard in the field as police officers that successive governments have been disinterested in dealing with these problems which have ruined many lives.
“When you look at the intense accountability and scrutiny applied to the police force it is incompatible with the almost total absence of similar scrutiny to the oversight bodies themselves.
“This has taken its toll on many individuals and public confidence.
“We look to the Baird government to deal with these issues.’’
Mr Kaldas was at the centre of an Ombudsman’s inquiry after his family, home, office and another 100 police officers were illegally bugged by police from an internal affairs taskforce.
Mr Kaldas went public with his concerns about the handling of the Ombudsman’s inquiry and actions of the PIC at a parliamentary inquiry last year.
Since then the PIC has been scrapped and the Ombudsman’s office stripped of its powers to investigate police.
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