NSW Police are re-examining hundreds of murder cold cases as part of their response to a landmark inquiry that found they failed to properly investigate dozens of potential gay hate crimes over 40 years.
More than two dozen detectives have been appointed to examine details of 213 unsolved homicide cases dating between 1970 and 2010 under Taskforce Atlas. It’s not known how many of these cases relate to members of the LGBTQ community.
Detective Chief Superintendent Grant Taylor and Assistant Commissioner Gavin Wood sit among evidence boxes for a cold case murder investigation. Credit: Nikki Short
Of those 213 cases, 50 have been fully reviewed and digitised. Seven require a new investigation, while two have been assessed as bias-motivated crimes.
Taskforce Atlas was established in response to a world-first Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes which scrutinised dozens of unsolved deaths in the state.
Commission head and NSW Supreme Court Justice John Sackar accused the police of taking an “adversarial or unnecessarily defensive” approach to engaging with the inquiry.
Scouring for gold
Detective Chief Superintendent Grant Taylor said the appointment of 25 detectives almost doubled the unsolved homicide team and was the largest allocation of resources to the department in police history.
“We’re picking through every single bit of the material, archive records and exhibits and seeing with fresh eyes whether we can elicit any new evidence and bring those to some sort of fruition,” he said.
Some evidence has been sent away for DNA testing to develop a suspect’s profile. This profile can then be matched against DNA collected from a suspect via “covert means”.
Detective Inspector Matthew Russell said he hoped the process would unearth new leads.
“We hope in all of these boxes there’s a little bit of gold,” he said.
However, First Mardi Gras and 78ers member Barry Charles raised concerns that bias and stigmas from previous decades could affect investigations.
Charles said he was threatened with arrest when he tried to report assaults in well-known Alexandria Park, which was a gay beat in the ’80s and ’90s. Gay men William Allen and Richard Johnson were later murdered in separate incidents in that same park.
“Those murders could have been prevented if those assaults were taken seriously,” he said, urging police to examine potential bias by the original investigating officers.
Assistant Commissioner Gavin Wood acknowledged the police had previously failed in its response to crimes against the LGBTQ community.
“Holistically, we have made errors in the past as a policing organisation, but it’s how you respond and learn from the errors of the past,” he said.
Police have also rolled out hate crime awareness training and are developing commissioner training to help address police culture.
Sickening throwback to Sydney’s dark days
Police are trying to repair their strained relationship with the LGBTQ community. Last week, a motion to bar police from participating in Mardi Gras was narrowly defeated.
These efforts include developing a community consultative committee which will shape the NSW Police Force’s response to the inquiry and provide feedback and intel between the community and police.
ACON CEO Michael Woodhouse and MP Alex Greenwich consulted police for an update into investigations of unsolved homicides.Credit: Nikki Short
CEO of LGBTQ health organisation ACON Michael Woodhouse said this flow of information was crucial in the face of ongoing hate crimes and escalating violence.
This week, the Herald uncovered gangs of teenagers using dating apps to lure, bash and rob gay men in Sydney parks in a wave of homophobic crimes that police and LGBTQ groups say is a sickening throwback to the dark days of Sydney’s gay hate attacks.
“I want to know when people in our communities experience serious crime, they meet a police force that will … make it as easy and comfortable as possible to tell their stories, to get the support and to get the protection that they need, and I want to make sure it’s done consistently,” Woodhouse said.
He said examining cold cases could offer a “healing moment” for those who knew victims.
“The community is looking to know we’re using all the tools available ... to try and get justice for those individuals, their friends and families,” he said.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich, who was instrumental in establishing the Special Commission of Inquiry, supported steps the police were taking to engage with the community.
“We’ll know that that healing has been successful when we know that LGBTQ people are completely comfortable reporting crimes, going to police for support and know that we’ve got a police force that completely understands those issues,” he said.
The Special Commission of Inquiry examined 32 cases and found there was reason to suspect LGBTQ bias was a factor in 25 of them.
The report, released last December, exposed major failings including lost exhibits and incomplete investigative files and made 19 recommendations, 15 of which were directed at police.
All were accepted in full.
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