The Snitch: AFP officer accidentally exposes some secrets
FIND out some of the secrets an Australian Federal Police officer unwittingly exposed when he used a slip of paper to keep the midday sun out of his eyes while protecting ousted PM Malcolm Turnbull.
NSW
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THE Sunday Telegraph has launched a new law and order column called The Snitch.
Crime reporter Ava Benny-Morrison and court reporter Brenden Hills will reveal all the hot gossip from cops and the legal fraternity from the top end of town.
SHADY SECRETS
IT was a harmless attempt to keep the midday sun out of his eyes but it ended up unwittingly exposing the AFP’s guide to protecting ousted PM Malcolm Turnbull.
A federal police officer was in his parked car outside Turnbull’s palatial Point Piper residence on Friday, while removalists were packing up the Wentworth MP’s possessions inside The Lodge and carting them back to Sydney.
The AFP regularly assigns officers to keep an eye on the PM’s residence but this particular one appeared to be struggling with the midday sun. When his hat wouldn’t do the trick, he placed a piece of paper against the driver’s side window.
What he didn’t realise was there was sensitive information printed on the page — a how-to-guide for protecting the nation’s leader.
The document detailed mobile phone numbers for AFP supervisors, the roster for the dignitary protection unit, the last names of those officers, their call signs and how often foot patrols were to be carried out.
A curious photographer nearby managed to take a quick frame of the embarrassing oversight.
The AFP said it did not comment on matters of protection.
BACKYARD CRIME
RICHARD Horsley is used to fighting crime in the courtroom but last week it followed him home.
The barrister’s 20-year-old daughter was arrested by Redfern police on Tuesday in a late night drug sting at the family’s home.
Genevieve Horsley, a University of Technology student who worked at an inner-west pharmacy, is accused of supplying drugs from her father’s palatial terrace home.
It is understood police were inquiring about another matter at the household when they chanced upon Ms Horsley’s alleged activities.
She was released on bail after being charged with drug supply. She is due to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on October 8.
Mr Horsley stepped down from the bar last month, announcing to the world online that he was no longer a “barrister or even an Australian legal practitioner”.
Mr Horsley was a barrister at Eight Wentworth Chambers in the city and largely practised commercial law. There is no suggestion he had any knowledge of what his daughter was allegedly up to.
GLOCK’N’HORROR
A FORGETFUL detective has beaten the rap for leaving his firearm in an unlocked car. Detective Senior Constable Terence Dwyer left his police-issued Glock in a backpack on the front seat of his car in Sydney’s northwest last October.
It was stolen from the unmarked police car in the middle of the night, sparking a frantic, three-month police hunt to get the gun back.
After a series of arrests, an unidentified motocross bandit hurled the Glock at the front door of a PCYC near Liverpool in January.
Detective Dwyer was charged for not keeping his firearm safe but can now put the sorry saga behind him after a magistrate found him not guilty of the offence in Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday.
However, The Snitch doubts he has heard the last of it from the powers that be in the force.
NO WIN FOR ABUSER
HE works for an organisation that represents victims of domestic violence but sacked Legal Aid solicitor William Sandilands believes his employer’s decision to sack him for assaulting his wife was “unreasonable and harsh”.
Mr Sandilands, who received a Public Service Medal in 2003, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm for hitting his wife in the face and choking her in front of their daughter in 2016.
Legal Aid CEO Brendan Thomas fired the 63-year-old solicitor advocate in late 2017, outlining in a letter that he felt “obliged to take a strong stance when it comes to act of violence against women”.
But in the Industrial Relations Commission, Mr Sandilands claimed his former employer’s justification for sacking him placed too much emphasis on the organisation’s domestic violence programs. Plus Mr Sandilands had little to do with such programs.
However, the IRC wasn’t sold, dismissing his claim and saying his conduct “had the potential to bring Legal Aid into disrepute”.
REAL-LIFE DRAMA
A SECRET relationship caught on camera, claims of a 71-year-old woman stalking a man in a dark street, and an alleged threat to call in a gunman.
But this is no shallow plot-line from a daytime soap — it’s the real-life drama that’s been consuming Coogee Legion Club and the timber-lined chambers of Waverley Local Court.
At the centre of this high-drama is David Lyons, a former club director who had been accused of stalking by his ex-partner, Thi Hong Chuc Le, once their relationship soured.
Ms Le took out an AVO against Lyons and followed-through with a complaint to the board, which suspended him on a misconduct finding.
But, curiously, that was after the AVO had already been thrown out by a magistrate.
In court, Mr Lyons argued through his lawyer, Paul McGirr, that he’d in fact been the real victim of stalking, citing claims that Ms Le had manufactured photographs and threatened to call in a gunman.
Magistrate Lisa Stapleton, in nixing the matter, found Ms Le and her witnesses lacked credibility. That didn’t help Mr Lyons, however; he says he’s determined to clear his name and return to the club.
A spokesman for Ms Le said she was exploring appeal options.
GUN APPOINTMENT
THE new boss of the NSW Firearms Registry will have his work cut out for him on the back of the controversial decision to grant West Pennant Hills killer John Edwards a firearms licence.
Commissioner Mick Fuller has appointed Superintendent Anthony Bell to head up the Murwillumbah-based registry.
Mr Fuller changed the role slightly so a sworn police officer would be the commander rather than a civilian employee.
Supt Bell, who has been the boss at Leichhardt police station and overseen major operations, like Vivid, in the city, has the mammoth task of reviewing the registry.
The registry, responsible for managing 240,000 registered shooters in NSW, has been criticised for issuing Mr Edwards a firearms licence before he shot dead his two children in July.