Ex-Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones cleared of claims he leaked information to damage then Commissioner Simon Overland
UPDATE: THE anti-corruption watchdog clears ex-deputy police chief of leaking during a crippling command crisis, but reveals leaks only stopped last year.
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VICTORIA’S anti-corruption watchdog has cleared former Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones of leaking and recommends closing the book on the police command crisis that rocked the state.
A report by former judge Murray Kellam for the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) says there is no evidence that Sir Ken had engaged in serious misconduct.
But it has referred two former police inspectors to the current Chief Commissioner of Police, Ken Lay, for possible disciplinary action.
Sir Ken Jones was accused of leaking information to undermine former Chief Commissioner Simon Overland.
Sir Ken was later investigated by the Office of Police Integrity (OPI), which controversially included phone tapping.
He later left the force and returned to the UK.
SIR KEN ‘FORCED TO LEAVE’ BY OVERLAND
Despite the intense probes into Sir Ken at the time, the IBAC report now clears him of wrongdoing.
“Mr Kellam has concluded that the evidence available to the OPI and set out in OPI’s final investigation report to the Ombudsman does not support an allegation that Sir Ken had engaged in serious misconduct by leaking or facilitating leaking to the media of confidential police information,” the report says.
Mr Kellam said the facts showed there was a “serious level of dysfunction in the relationship between (Sir Ken) and Mr Overland” between 1 July 2009, when he started working for VicPol, and 2 May 2011 when he announced his decision to resign.
“There is no evidence of anything other than appropriate behaviour on the part of Sir Ken during 2010, notwithstanding the fact that it can be inferred reasonably that the relationship between him and Mr Overland must have been sufficiently difficult to justify the intervention of the then Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.”
M Kellam said it was clear “that Sir Ken held serious concerns about the structure of VicPol” and that although there was no evidence to show he had leaked information directly to any journalist it was clear he “was not afraid to voice his opinion on policing issues even when his views differed from his colleagues and the Chief Commissioner”.
The report found leaking of internal police information was still happening up until early last year.
“On the evidence before me it is appropriate to observe that during the period of 2009 up until early 2013 some unidentified people have engaged in the ‘leaking’ of material which was at the time confidential to VicPol, and/or to OPI and/or to the VO (Victorian Ombudsman).”
“Clearly this ‘culture of leaking’ did harm to the reputation of individuals, but in my opinion, in addition, posed a significant risk of bringing the three institutions into disrepute with the public,” Mr Kellam wrote in the report.
The IBAC says it will not probe the matter any further.
“It is time for IBAC to commit its resources to current issues rather than revisit matters of past history,” it says.
It also recommends against providing the OPI report into Sir Ken to parliament.
IN DEPTH: WHAT OTHER REPORTS SAID ABOUT OVERLAND, JONES
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