Naked City podcast: From undercover to under lock and key

The Naked City podcast will take a journey into the dark depths of the Australian criminal underworld. In this series you will hear recordings of some of Australia's most dangerous criminals, all of whom have been remarkably frank in their recollections.

The ex-cop with a reputation sits quietly at a picnic table at a little stop at a little country town on a perfect autumn afternoon. Even though these days he tends to hunch and keep his head down he is still physically imposing.

A few metres away is a wire rack where locals leave plants and bunches of herbs to find a new home. It is that sort of community.

Next door is the old-style general store he ran with his mother. It has been in the family since 1946. It is boarded up now.

Cliff Lockwood at his home.Credit: Jason South

They closed the main street bridge for repairs and the through traffic stopped. Then COVID hit.

As we talk his pet cats climb on the table and nestle into the big man with the salt and pepper beard. Often they are his only companions. “I prefer my own company,” he says.

Cliff Lockwood was just 19 when he left the peace of a tiny town to join the police force. “I know it sounds funny but I just wanted to do good. Nineteen was way too young. You don’t know anything.”

On Sunday, April 9, 1989 Lockwood and his partner, Senior Detective Dermot Avon arrested car thief and suspected violent criminal Gary Abdallah and took him to his Drummond Street two-level flat to search for evidence and an accomplice.

According to police Abdallah grabbed an imitation firearm and Lockwood responded by firing six shots from his gun, then grabbed Avon’s to fire the last and fatal shot.

Both police were charged with murder and were acquitted.

Cliff became a polarising figure. Naturally affable some cops believed he had got away with murder. “Some of them hated my guts, I don’t know why.”

Lockwood’s left policing and his life spiralled out of control. He was jailed in the Northern Territory.

Prison, he says, was good for him.

For the first time in the Naked City Podcast, Lockwood tells his story.