By Jack Gramenz
The police constable son of a former NSW premier denies lying about a man’s purported threats against officers, putting any mistake down to stress and confusion.
Daniel Keneally’s written reports and the way they differed from a recording of a conversation he had with a man who was later arrested and jailed for three weeks were not an active effort to mislead, his lawyer says.
Daniel Keneally, the police officer son of former politician Kristina Keneally, has been charged with fabricating evidence.Credit: Twitter
The son of former federal senator and NSW premier Kristina Keneally had recently chalked up two years as a sworn officer and was manning the desk at Newtown police station in Sydney’s inner west on February 24, 2021 when Luke Brett Moore called.
According to prosecutors, Mr Moore, who ran the website ISUEPolice.com, had phoned a number of police stations to discuss his views about strip searches.
NSW Police have faced separate civil claims about the practice and its use on children.
Mr Moore spoke to Keneally about 8.30pm, asking the constable to take a message for his inspector to let him know ISUEPolice.com had called.
“(Keneally) concurrently opened (the website) and said in the course of the call that it was ‘quite interesting’,” prosecutor Daniel Boyle told Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
The constable was concerned enough to tell his boss, Sergeant Daniel Toleski, who told the court he thought Mr Moore was a lunatic.
“I wouldn’t say (Keneally) was concerned, it was more that he just relayed what the contents of the phone call was,” Sgt Toleski said.
Constable Jessica Riley heard some of the call and agreed with Keneally’s lawyer Paul McGirr that she thought Mr Moore was rambling, playing a prank or had mental health issues.
Keneally filled out paperwork recording the conversation and signed an official statement after talking to his supervisor.
“The statement is the document that is the subject of the charge,” Mr Boyle said.
In it, Keneally records threats being made against a detective in southern NSW.
“He is a pedophile in your ranks, he strip-searches children, I want him gone,” Keneally recorded hearing, along with clarifying “gone” meant “dead”.
But Mr Boyle said that the recording did not contain any threats of violence “of any nature”.
Mr Moore also did not name the detective in the recording, although Keneally did in his recollection, the court heard.
Mr McGirr said it was a mistake due to time pressures, stress and the fact he was reading Mr Moore’s website, which contained similar information to that recorded in the officer’s statement, while he spoke to the man on the phone.
He conflated the two sources of information but did not fabricate information with the intention of misleading a judicial tribunal as charged, the lawyer told the court.
Prosecutors have a “high hurdle” to pass in proving he did, Mr McGirr added.
The hearing continues.
AAP
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