Book claims that a police hit 'led to Walsh St killings'
POLICE gunned down suspected armed robber Graeme Jensen in cold blood and planted a gun at the scene.
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POLICE gunned down suspected armed robber Graeme Jensen in cold blood and planted a gun at the scene - triggering the retribution murders of two young police constables in Walsh St, according to an explosive new book.
Convicted drug dealer and former lawyer Andrew Fraser claims the incident is one of a litany of examples of police corruption "on a grand scale" in Victoria over more than two decades.
He has written Snouts in the Trough, which is the story of disgraced former drug squad detective Malcolm Rosenes, who was jailed for drug dealing.
Fraser says Rosenes' eye-witness account of the incident is the first time an officer who was there has broken ranks and told the true story of the 1988 shooting.
In his book Fraser also claims:
POLICE routinely illegally planted fake evidence. It is called a "load" and many convictions have been obtained using planted evidence;
VICPOL's "controlled delivery scheme" to deal with seized drugs was scammed by officers, with 87 per cent of the narcotics and chemicals worth hundreds of millions of dollars going missing;
CORRUPT former drug squad detectives have since been promoted to high rank;
THE Brumby Government's anti-corruption commission has been set up to fail;
POLICE on trial for drugs offences "get looked after" by their former colleagues; and
THE Police Association has been "combative" in the face of attempts to weed out corruption.
In the book Fraser describes Rosenes' claimed account of the shooting and planting of the gun on Jensen's body in October, 1988.
"Suddenly there was a volley of shots. Malcolm ducked for cover in his surveillance car," Fraser writes.
"When the shots stopped he quickly drove towards the car park where Jensen had been. The Holden had crashed into a pole and some of the Armed Robbery Squad were running towards it with their shotguns and handguns drawn.
"Malcolm's attention was drawn to three members of the Armed Robbery Squad who had been at the boot of their car and were now walking towards Jensen's car.
"One of them was carrying a rolled-up beach towel. Malcolm thought they were going to cover the deceased with the towel. But on this day, nothing was turning out to be usual.
"He watched the officer unfurl the towel but instead of placing it over the deceased, a sawn off .22 rifle flipped out of the towel and fell through the car window to land next to Jensen."
The killing of Jensen is said to have been avenged by the slayings of constables Damian Eyre and Steven Tynan in Walsh St, South Yarra, a day later.
Fraser also claims that vast amounts of illicit drugs went missing while in the care of the drug squad.
"The final and most comprehensive report made by Ceja (Taskforce) stated that 87 per cent of the drugs and chemicals dealt with under the Controlled Delivery Scheme remain unaccounted for," he says.
Fraser blames the culture of corruption engendered by a jailed cop, former detective Snr-Sgt Wayne Strawhorn.
"Strawhorn would tell any junior officer logging drugs to just put down 'a quantity', that would mean there was no proper record kept of the actual amounts of drugs - so if some went missing, no one outside the squad would ever know," Fraser says.
He says he and Rosenes decided to write the book "to let the public know what is really happening in the police force".
"They are entitled to know that all is not well and the only way these problems can be solved is to have a royal commission to clear the decks and start afresh with an anti-corruption commission," he says.
Rosenes says the shooting of Jensen was the first time he was involved in anything seriously corrupt and the incident had a major impact on his life.
"From then on things went from bad to worse for me. I'd always done things by the book, but when I got to the drug squad it was a slow progression into corrupt ways of doing things," he says.
"But that was how they did things and I wasn't going to buck the system. And I wasn't going to challenge Strawhorn, who was this high-achieving detective who had the ear and confidence of police command because of what he was doing," Rosenes told the Sunday Herald Sun.
"Some of the blokes in the squad who were involved in corruption back then were later promoted to very high ranks and some are still there," he said.
Fraser says the State Government's belated efforts to tackle corruption do not go far enough.
"As recently as April 2010 the Premier of Victoria John Brumby flatly refused to entertain the prospect of an anti-corruption body, because all they do is create a lawyers' picnic," he says in the book.
"When the pressure became too great, Brumby caved in and agreed to the establishment of an anti-corruption commission. Already the mooted structure indicates that it is being set up to fail.
"Malcolm was debriefed and the transcripts of that debrief, together with many hours of interviews, form the basis of this book. There are thousands of pages of debrief, all of which the powers that be, including the Victorian Government, have been in possession of since 2000.
"It discloses corruption on a grand scale. As I write, precious little has been done.
"This book exposes perjury in murder trials, murder, theft, loading and virtually every other type of corrupt activity you can imagine and our Government continues to stick its head in the sand."
Snouts in the Trough, by Andrew Fraser, Hardie Grant Books. RRP: $29.95