Former NT Police Commissioner jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice

THE downfall of former NT Police Commissioner John McRoberts is complete after he was today sentenced to jail.

Former NT Police commissioner John McRoberts. Picture: Justin Kennedy

THE downfall of former NT Police Commissioner John McRoberts is complete.

Justice Dean Mildren has sentenced the former top cop to three years’ jail, suspended after 12 months.

McRoberts, 59, was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice following a five-week trial.

Justice Mildren said he was guilty of a gross misuse of power that “struck at the heart of justice”, including to protect himself from scandal.

Mildren: "You were as commissioner of police expected to uphold the law, not actively seek to undermine it." @TheNTNews

— Craig Dunlop (@dunlop_craig) June 26, 2018

The jury found he had deliberately and knowingly deflected a criminal investigation away from his secret lover, corrupt travel agent Xana Kamitsis, who was the prime arrest target of a major fraud squad probe, Operation Holden.

Justice Dean Mildren "It was clear that your actions were infected by an improper purpose". @TheNTNews

— Craig Dunlop (@dunlop_craig) June 26, 2018

The case had spent more than two years in the courts, often bogged down in defence requests for tens-of-thousands of pages of documents McRoberts had hoped would bolster his claim he was acting in the broader interests of the government and the police force.

Earlier this month, the 12-member jury found McRoberts intended to deflect and frustrate the fraud investigation into his former lover, travel agent Alexandra Xana Kamitsis, who was later jailed.

Kamitsis was the prime target of the Northern Territory’s largest ever fraud investigation, in which numerous Darwin travel agents were found to have been defrauding a state government pensioner concession scheme by millions of dollars.

The jury agreed by an 11-1 vote with the crown case that McRoberts was hopelessly conflicted, to be sexually involved with the prime target of a police investigation, but lied to his colleagues and public servants about it and was involved in the investigation.

■ GUILTY: FORMER NT POLICE COMMISSIONER JOHN MCROBERTS’ WEB OF SEX, LIES AND DECEIT

■ CORRUPT FORMER TRAVEL AGENT XANA KAMITSIS OUT OF JAIL, LIVING IN LUXURY ON HOME DETENTION

■ TRAVEL AGENT XANA KAMITSIS CAN LEAVE ‘$1m CELL’ WHILE SERVING REST OF HER SENTENCE

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