‘Adversarial, unnecessarily defensive’: NSW Police under fire as LGBTIQ hate crimes report released

The head of a world-first special commission of inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes has accused the NSW Police of taking an “adversarial or unnecessarily defensive” approach to engaging with the inquiry, in a scathing report that exposed major failings including lost exhibits and incomplete investigative files.

NSW Supreme Court Justice John Sackar, who headed the inquiry into dozens of unsolved deaths, said in his final report, released on Thursday, that the inquiry had “faced significant and unexpected challenges with respect to both the availability of records and its relationship with” the NSW Police.

Supreme Court Justice John Sackar headed the special commission of inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes.Credit: Rhett Wyman

He pointed to challenges raised by police to the scope of the inquiry and protracted processes for acquiring information from police.

“I and my team of counsel, solicitors, investigators and other support staff were asked to find answers for an unclosed category of deaths where all the investigative resources of the NSWPF have previously failed, in many cases for between 30 and 50 years,” Sackar said.

The long-awaited inquiry was established by the former Perrottet Liberal government last year, after persistent advocacy by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, and scrutinised dozens of unsolved deaths in the state between 1970 and 2010.

In total, the inquiry examined 32 cases in detail and found there was reason to suspect LGBTIQ bias was a factor in 25 of them. Two of those cases were dealt with confidentially.

Sackar said that “there appears to have been a resistance in the NSWPF, even very recently, to acknowledging the extent of the hostility experienced by LGBTIQ people in the 40-year period under examination”.

He made 19 recommendations, seven of which were directed to specific cases, including that NSW Police make an application for a fresh inquest in four cases. Among them was the unsolved murder of Richard Slater, a grandfather who died aged 69 on December 22, 1980, three days after a brutal assault in a public toilet in Birdwood Park in central Newcastle.

He also recommended police regularly monitor DNA databases to help identify a person of interest in the 1993 cold case murder of former AC/DC manager Crispin Dye, after a hair from Dye’s shirt provided a partial DNA profile that had been labelled unknown male B.

The inquiry sent Dye’s jeans and shirt for forensic testing for the first time this year. None of Dye’s clothing had ever been sent for forensic analysis by NSW Police.

Sackar recommended that police also ensure that a white card found among Dye’s possessions was “kept securely as an exhibit in the event that technological developments can assist in determining whether the bloodstained mark is a fingerprint”.

At a systemic level, he recommended a review of the practices, procedures and resourcing of the unsolved homicide team within NSW Police and that police “promptly identify exhibits that should be submitted or resubmitted for forensic testing in light of possible technological advances”.

He also recommended “additional mandatory and ongoing training be provided to NSWPF officers concerning the LGBTIQ community” on a range of topics including the indicia of a bias crime, meaning a crime motivated by prejudice, and “the role of conscious and unconscious bias and the potential impact of bias on investigations”.

The inquiry examined in detail the police investigation into the death of US mathematician Scott Johnson, whose killer was sentenced this year to a maximum of nine years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter over the 27-year-old’s death near a gay beat in Manly in 1988.

US mathematician Scott Johnson’s death was initially declared a suicide.

Sackar concluded that former senior police detective Pamela Young and former deputy police commissioner Mick Willing, then commander of the homicide squad, did not believe a reinvestigation of Johnson’s death in 2013 was necessary. “I observe that these matters are suggestive of the institutional defensiveness on the part of the NSWPF which I have commented on in other parts of this report,” he said.

The inquiry also heard evidence about an interview on the ABC’s Lateline program in 2015 in which Young said there was “still evidence and information that Scott may have suicided”.

Sackar said he examined the interview because he considered it might be an “instructive piece of the mosaic of evidence directed to the ongoing attitude of the NSWPF to investigations and reinvestigations of deaths involving suspected LGBTIQ bias”. He concluded it had some “limited” utility in that context.

He found that Willing gave Young the impression the interview was authorised, and that Young genuinely believed she was authorised to speak on air to journalist Emma Alberici.

Then detective chief inspector Pamela Young during the ABC Lateline interview in April 2015.Credit: ABC

The inquiry also examined the police investigation into the deaths of John Russell, Ross Warren and Gilles Mattaini, who died or disappeared between 1985 and 1989 near the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk around Marks Park, a popular gay beat.

Sackar concluded there was reason to suspect LGBTIQ bias in all three suspected deaths, and noted that a secretive NSW Police Strike Force dubbed Neiwand focused “overwhelmingly, in all three deaths, on factors pointing towards the possibility of suicide or misadventure”.

This was so even though then deputy state coroner Jacqueline Milledge had already found in 2005 that Warren and Russell had died after meeting with “foul play”, and there was a “strong possibility” Mattaini died in similar circumstances.

“In my view, the evidence establishes that Strike Force Neiwand made virtually no attempt to actually investigate, as homicides, the deaths of any of these three men,” Sackar said.

The state government said in a statement that it would “thoroughly consider the contents of the Commission’s report and will respond in due course”.

Premier Chris Minns thanked the inquiry for its “tireless work in pursuing justice for the victims of these crimes”.

“I thank all of those who came forward with information or otherwise assisted the inquiry – for your contributions and staunch advocacy for partners, family members, friends and community,” he said.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said: “Our work here is far from over and our focus now shifts to ensuring we deliver a meaningful and decisive response.

Sackar said that “the process of obtaining investigative files and other material from the NSWPF was not straightforward”.

“The primary reason for this was the historical legacy of poor record and exhibit management practices concerning unsolved homicides. In addition, I consider that the response of the NSWPF to the inquiry was, at times, defensive and unhelpful,” he said.

The inquiry examined a Parramatta killing in 1980 in which the murder weapon was lost, and a frenzied killing in a Paddington apartment in 1981 in which crucial exhibits including cigarette butts were missing.

The inquiry reviewed every unsolved homicide in NSW between 1970 and 2010, totalling more than 700 cases, to find suspected LGBTIQ hate crime deaths. It also examined a NSW Police review of more than 80 deaths potentially motivated by gay hate bias, dubbed Strike Force Parrabell.

Strike Force Parrabell had said in 2018 that just five of the 23 cases it considered unsolved at that time were suspected bias crimes, a far lower figure than the inquiry concluded.

Sackar stopped short of making a formal recommendation to this effect but said NSW Police should “consider the value of sincerely and unequivocally acknowledging the shortcomings of the past”.

“For those individuals and their families who have experienced hurt and suffering from the actions and attitudes of the past, I acknowledge your pain”: Police Commissioner Karen Webb.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said: “For those individuals and their families who have experienced hurt and suffering from the actions and attitudes of the past, I acknowledge your pain.

“It is deeply regrettable and while I cannot undo what has occurred previously, I give you my commitment today that NSWPF is determined to uphold the policies, education, and training now entrenched in the practices of modern policing which did not exist 30 years ago.”

NSW Police said in a statement: “From its inception, the Commissioner of Police – and the NSWPF as a whole – has fully supported the Inquiry, recognising its critical role in addressing the unsolved deaths and fostering better relations with the LGBTIQ+ community.

“It’s extremely important for the NSWPF to acknowledge the past shortcomings in historical investigations, particularly in responding to violence and discrimination against the LGBTIQ+ community, and in the exhibit management of cases relating to the Inquiry.

“From the outset, NSWPF has recognised the past inadequacies and has been committed to adapting and evolving the culture and practices of the organisation.”

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