William Tyrell officer ’feared’ reporting Jubelin recordings
A detective investigating the William Tyrrell investigation said he didn’t report his boss, Gary Jubelin, for recording conversations without a warrant because he feared being ‘bullied and belittled’.
NSW
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A homicide detective was “in shock” when his boss on the William Tyrrell investigation asked him to record a phone conversation with a person of interest.
Detective Senior Constable Greg Gallyot said he didn’t report the wrongdoing because he was “in fear”, the Downing Centre Local Court had heard today.
He eventually provided a statement about the recordings on the same day he started his sought-after job at the Unsolved Homicide Team.
The officer worked on Strike Force Rosann, the investigation into the disappearance of three-year-old William from Kendall on the Mid North Coast.
The child vanished while playing in his foster grandmother’s backyard on Benaroon Drive in September, 2014.
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The case’s former boss, Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin, has been charged with illegally recording four conversations with a person of interest, Paul Savage, during the investigation.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Savage has always denied any involvement in William’s disappearance.
Jubelin is also accused of directing a junior officer, Det Snr CST Gallyot, to use his own phone to record one of the conversations on the phone with Mr Savage, a Kendall local, in 2017.
Giving evidence before a packed courtroom today, the detective explained his initial reaction as “shock”.
“I looked at Detective Chief Inspector Jubelin,” he said.
“He gave me what I would call a serious or stern look with a furrowed brow and stared back at me. He said, just do it.
“I sat down, got my phone out and put it into record mode and was ready to record.”
However, defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC suggested Jubelin never said “just do it”.
Det Snr CST Gallyot told the court Jubelin instructed him not to save the recording.
However, Det Snr CST Gallyot uploaded it to a shared drive that the strike force had access to.
“I didn’t believe Mr Jubelin would find it and know that I disobeyed him,” he said.
In late 2018, Jubelin then asked Det Snr CST Gallyot to compile a synopsis of two recordings on his phone.
The recordings were conversations Jubelin recorded with Savage at his home in May, 2018.
“There was a discussion where Mr Jubelin said ‘just do it as a synopsis, don’t do it word for word and if anyone asks we’ll just say we obtained it from the listening devices’,” he told the court.
That synopsis was then included in the brief of evidence for the coronial inquest into the disappearance of William.
Asked why he didn’t report the recordings to a senior officer if he thought it was wrong, Det Snr CST Gallyot said he was in fear of “putting his career in jeopardy, being bullied or intimidated”.
He told the court he’d seen Jubelin bully and belittle people before.
“I did want to confront the (Homicide Squad) commander but it is very difficult when myself, Jubelin and the entire team sit outside the commander’s office,” he said.
The rest of the strike force became aware of the recordings, the court has heard.