By Erin Pearson
A detective from the major drug squad will spend at least 18 months in prison after falsifying forensic evidence to charge a single mother with drug trafficking, an action that could have resulted in the woman being jailed for decades.
Jye Symes, 37, faced the County Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office. He had forged DNA and handwriting analysis reports to falsely link the woman to a drug house.
Jye Symes was jailed for three years with a non-parole period of 18 months.Credit: Darrian Traynor
The court heard that Leyna Thai was arrested after a drug bust in 2020. She spent months trying to clear her name before the detective’s criminality was unearthed on the eve of her committal hearing.
“Corrupt police misconduct such as yours has significant social consequences,” Judge Michael Cahill said. “It undermines public confidence in the police force. It erodes the morale of honest police officers and can encourage other police to ignore criminal behaviour.
“The public is entitled to rely upon the integrity of police officers in investigating and prosecuting offenders. It is entitled to expect police officers will not abuse the trust placed in them.”
Cahill said in December that the drug squad had identified a property in Cairnlea, in Melbourne’s west, as a safe house where illicit drugs were being prepared for sale.
When police searched the address, they found – among other things – gloves in the drug preparation area and express-post envelopes detectives believed were being used to help traffic the substances.
A man living at the house, 41-year-old Muhamed Elkadi, was arrested and charged.
Elkadi pleaded guilty to drug trafficking after his DNA was found on the gloves. He was jailed for at least seven years for selling drugs via the dark web and sending them to customers in the post, concealed inside items such as toys.
Cahill said that at the time of the search warrant Thai, Elkadi’s girlfriend, was registered as a tenant of the same property but was not home when police executed their warrant.
The court heard that a month after Elkadi agreed to plead guilty, police arrested Thai in June 2020. She voluntarily gave detectives a sample of her DNA before being released without charge.
The court heard that Symes, who has been sentenced to three years in jail with a non-parole period of 18 months, had been a detective senior constable working in Victoria Police’s major drug squad unit and became the investigation’s lead informant.
In the months after the drug bust, Symes was directed to submit Thai’s DNA sample to the forensics department and the envelopes for handwriting comparison.
“You told your sergeant that the analysis was in progress; however, you never submitted [the items],” Cahill said.
Some time between late 2021 and mid-2022, Symes forged an electronic copy of Thai’s DNA results to state that her DNA matched the gloves.
The detective also doctored a handwriting analysis, which he had been provided during an earlier investigation, to say the express-post samples matched Thai’s.
In July 2022, Thai was rearrested. During the police interview, Symes told the single mother that police had forensic material that implicated her in the drug trafficking operation.
Thai was later charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years, and remanded in custody before a court hearing later that day.
There, Cahill said, Symes lied and said DNA and handwriting analyses linked Thai to the crime scene. He later included the false forensic statements in the brief of evidence, which was sent to the Office of Public Prosecutions and Thai’s lawyer.
“In the cover email to the OPP, you wrote that [the forensic officer] had examined 10 envelopes for handwriting comparison. That was untrue,” Cahill said.
When Thai’s legal team applied to cross-examine the forensic experts in court, Cahill said Symes lied to Thai’s solicitor, telling them he could not locate the DNA expert, and offered to proceed with lesser charges against Thai. Soon after, the handwriting expert identified the document as a forgery.
Symes was arrested at his home on the same day and the charges against Thai were withdrawn.
“[During the search warrant] police seized your Victoria Police work laptop that contained the metadata of the two statements that you had fabricated,” Cahill said.
“The consequences of your offending is very serious. You charged [Thai] with drug offences which exposed her to a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment.”
Cahill said it was only through the actions of Thai’s legal representatives and the OPP that Symes’ misconduct was uncovered.
“Police officers exercise considerable power over members of the public. By acting contrary to your sworn duty to uphold the law, you seriously abused that power,” Cahill said.
In April 2023, The Age revealed details of the case for the first time. Symes was charged with misconduct in public office in December 2023.
The court heard Symes joined Victoria Police in 2009 and spent his first five years working on the front line before being promoted into investigative positions.
At the time of his arrest, Victoria Police was scrutinising the potential for wider fallout and facing a financial hit in the tens of thousands of dollars after notifying defence lawyers it would pay legal costs for Thai, who had been accused of being a major player in an international dark-web drug syndicate.
Thai has since taken civil actions against Victoria Police.
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