Analysis: John McRoberts, jailed for attempting to pervert the course of justice, was a victim of his own arrogance

JOHN McRoberts’ arrogance did not take long to show when he was first appointed NT Police Commissioner. But nobody knew then that, years later, it would ultimately be his undoing

Former NT Police Commissioner John McRoberts

JOHN McRoberts has lost everything.

He has suffered the humiliation of his sex life becoming public, he has lost whatever was left of his reputation and he has lost his freedom.

He will be remembered as the guy who stopped the sale of full-strength beer at the footy, changed the NT Police uniform to blue, tapped into a journalist’s phone and went to jail for lying about having secret sex romps with a travel agent.

Darwin does strange things to men.

McRoberts wasn’t the first bloke – and won’t be the last – to venture north and lose the plot. Somehow, he had the arrogance to think he could single-handedly deflect the largest white-collar crime investigation in the history of Territory Police away from his secret lover, Xana Kamitsis, who was its prime target.

Nearly a decade ago, when McRoberts was first appointed, he seemed approachable and determined to make a difference.

Most thought he was the right choice to take over from his predecessor, Paul White.

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

His arrogance did not take long to show, but nobody knew then that, years later, it would be his undoing.

In mid-2010, with a federal election looming, an internal email warned police officers not to be seen to be using their positions to promote any candidates.

It was a direct message to the then-CLP candidate Natasha Griggs and her husband, Senior Sergeant Paul Griggs.

The next day, McRoberts stood shoulder-to-shoulder, in uniform, with then Labor MP Damian Hale, promoting the opening of a new police beat in Palmerston.

Doing so came across as a direct endorsement of Mr Hale, whose party mate, then chief minister Paul Henderson, had signed off on McRoberts’ appointment.

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

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

McRoberts didn’t like the criticism that followed and, within a year, his relationship with the press soured beyond recovery when he oversaw the tapping of NT News police reporter Justin O’Brien’s phone data.

By 2012, in between making arrangements for secret sex romps, McRoberts and Kamitsis would whinge to each other about how he was publicly portrayed.

When he was pictured on the front page of the NT News wearing a tropical hat – having gone on holiday a week after Mr Henderson tasked him with addressing a spike in violent crime in Alice Springs – Kamitsis texted him: “The NT News is a nasty piece of work … make the most of Bali.”

In November 2014, Kamitsis would herself end up on the front page, in handcuffs, when the fraud squad raided her Winnellie travel agency, Latitude Travel.

Cropped out of shot were the two forgotten heroes to emerge from this scandal, Detective Sergeant Jason Blake and Detective Senior Sergeant Clint Sims.

Sgt Blake had been determined to raid Kamitsis for months.

In June, Sgt Blake had a search warrant approved, only for McRoberts to pull rank and veto it.

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He had also been forced to apologise for questioning the “ingenious” civil debt recovery scheme his commissioner had championed.

Sen-Sgt Sims had also developed a suspicion the “friendship” McRoberts had declared with Kamitsis was something more.

Both smelled a rat, and trying to fend them off was like trying to hold back the tide.