Details of internal probe into rape allegations against former top cop Peter Bravos revealed
A FORMER Territory top cop commissioned two high-profile, interstate legal and police professionals to investigate why allegations against Peter Bravos were not reported internally prior to a formal complaint being made
Northern Territory
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NT POLICE top brass hired a prominent Sydney silk and a high-ranking Victorian police officer to investigate why allegations against Peter Bravos were not reported internally prior to the alleged victim making a formal complaint.
Bravos, a former Assistant Commissioner, is facing trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to two counts of raping a fellow police officer after the pair ended up alone at his house in 2004.
Court documents provided to the jury and seen by the NT News reveal then Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw commissioned high-profile Sydney barrister Arthur Moses SC and then Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Brett Guerin to probe the allegations in 2016.
The “scope of inquiry” documents reveal the pair were tasked with reviewing the “nature and circumstances” of the alleged assaults, which members of the NT Police force new about them and what action they took as a result.
“If no action was taken by them during that period, including but not limited to, reporting the matter internally within the NT Police force, to ascertain why no action was taken,” the terms of reference read.
The documents also charge Mr Moses and Mr Guerin with finding out who took an “unsolicited allegation of sexual assault” to then corruption watchdog the Public Interest Disclosures Commission in 2015, “which appears to have contributed to psychological harm to the alleged victim”.
The court heard Bravos volunteered to be interviewed for the investigation by Mr Moses in Sydney in 2016 before the inquiry was put on ice when the woman made a formal complaint the following year.
In a recording of the interview played to the jury this week, Bravos told Mr Moses while he admitted to having sex with the woman while they were both married in 2004, it was “most definitely” consensual.
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“She said we shouldn’t have done that and I agreed with her,” he said.
“I did the wrong thing, she did the wrong thing, we shouldn’t have done that and that was it.”
Jurors in the trial are due to reconvene to consider their verdict on Friday after beginning their deliberations on Wednesday.
Originally published as Details of internal probe into rape allegations against former top cop Peter Bravos revealed