The police officer son of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally will fight charges of fabricating evidence in a conversation with an anti-law enforcement activist, a Sydney court has heard.
Daniel Keneally, 24, has been charged with falsely accusing ISuePolice.com founder Luke Moore of making serious threats against police in February 2021.
Daniel Keneally, the police officer son of former politician Kristina Keneally, has been charged with fabricating evidence.Credit: Twitter
Moore allegedly called Newtown police station on the evening of February 24 and spoke to Keneally, who then completed a formal statement about the call.
“Unbeknown to Constable Keneally at the time, Mr Moore had recorded the telephone conversation,” One Nation MP and former police officer Rod Roberts told the NSW Legislative Council in November last year.
Keneally allegedly claimed that Moore made threats to NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and other officers, parliament was told.
Moore was charged by the fixated persons unit with two counts of using a carriage service to menace and one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill. He was refused bail and spent three weeks in custody before charges were withdrawn.
Luke Moore arrives at the Downing Centre on Thursday.Credit: Brook Mitchell
“A decision to discontinue the prosecution in this matter was made ... in June 2021,” a spokesperson for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions told the Herald.
Following a recommendation from the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, Keneally was charged in September with fabricating false evidence with intent to mislead a judicial tribunal.
Keneally did not appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday and the matter is due to return to the same court early next year.
Outside court on Thursday, Moore told reporters that if he had not recorded the conversation to protect his legal interests, which is permitted under law, he “would certainly have done five years’ jail”.
He said he was disappointed that Webb had not disavowed Keneally who is suspended from the NSW Police with pay.
“It’s offensive to the people of NSW,” Moore said.
Moore, 34, from Goulburn, was the recipient of more than $2 million through a banking error that he went on to spend on sports cars, Picasso and Warhol art works, sex workers and Led Zeppelin memorabilia before St George discovered what had happened.
He was convicted of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and sentenced to 4½ years in prison before being acquitted in the NSW Supreme Court in 2016.
He went on to found isuepolice.com, which seeks compensation for alleged victims of police brutality. It has “ceased trading until ... Daniel Keneally is bought to justice”, the website says.
US comedian Jim Jeffries has chronicled the battle between Moore and St George in an Amazon podcast.
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