Coronavirus: Critics condemn 18-month delay for Ruby Princess case

The findings of a criminal inquiry into deaths on the Ruby Princess will likely take at least 18 months to be aired in an open court.

Crew members dot the balconies of the Ruby Princess to take in the views of Port Kembla, NSW, on Monday as the ship refuels. Picture: AAP

Yet another Ruby Princess passenger has died, taking the death toll to 12, but the NSW government’s pre-emptive decision to order a police inquiry means the public could have to wait 18 months for answers to the fiasco that unleashed COVID-19 throughout Australia.

The findings of a criminal ­inquiry into the Ruby Princess will likely take at least 18 months to be aired in an open court due to the volume of evidence being gathered and backlogs plaguing the justice system.

The anticipated delay has been condemned by critics as it emerged an 84-year-old died in Western Australia after contracting COVID-19 on the ship.

NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller met senior homicide squad officers on Monday to formally hand over his preliminary investigation into why 2700 passengers were approved by NSW Health officials to disembark on March 19.

The investigation, codenamed Strike Force Bast, will begin a preoperational assessment of the evidence to determine if it is adequately resourced to deliver its findings expeditiously.

The Australian has been told special funding could be sought due to the size of the investigation and the undertaking required by detectives; they are likely to interview a significant portion of the nearly 4000 passengers and crew members who were on board the ship, likely to take months.

Special funding was provided by the NSW government to facilitate the 2014 Lindt cafe siege ­inquest, which interviewed about 1200 witnesses and maintained a core staff of 20 detectives. It took 2½ years for the inquiry’s findings to be made public.

Police have also been granted additional funding for complex and multifaceted gangland investigations, which the officer in charge of the Ruby Princess case – Detective Chief Inspector Jason Dickinson — has previously led.

But concerns are already being raised about delays in seeking answers for the public, and also the investigation’s scope.

The Australian has confirmed that any police fact-finding will not be made public unless a criminal charge is laid against an individual, and even then only specific sections of the evidence will be ventilated in open court.

Already hampered by backlogs, trials in the NSW District Court and NSW Supreme Court have been delayed even further due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any case relating to the Ruby Princess would be unlikely to be heard until at least the latter half of 2021, The Australian has been told.

NSW Labor’s upper house leader, Adam Searle, said evidence that exposed gaps in operations of state and federal agencies would not be made public during a criminal trial due to the focus on alleged criminality. It was also possible, he said, that no charges would be laid as a result of the police inquiry, meaning a coronial inquest could be the only forum to seek answers about shortcomings between agencies involved. Such an inquest could be years away, due to the need to wait for the police investigation to conclude, and because of backlogs within the justice system.

“It’s well known the Coroners Court has been inadequately resourced for a number of years with a backlog of work,” Mr Searle said. “This will just compound delays in getting answers about what happened.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declined to comment on whether she would make the fact-finding of the police investigation public, regardless of whether a criminal charge is laid, or whether she would attempt to expedite the coronial process.

“The community, the passengers and their families rightly want to understand what went wrong here,” Mr Searle said. “This investigation, and any coronial proceedings afterwards, will take months, perhaps years. That’s not good enough.”

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has previously called for an inquiry with royal commission-type powers, led by a retired judge, to investigate the Ruby Princess fiasco and deliver timely findings to the public. “A criminal investigation is a very serious matter. Police can only investigate where there is a suspected crime. The government needs to outline what the suspected crime or crimes are here, otherwise this inquiry has no legitimacy,” Mr Searle said.

Mr Fuller said over the weekend the inquiry would examine whether offences had been committed under the Biosecurity Act. Attorney-General Christian Porter has flagged civil fraud as another avenue of investigation, if evidence emerges that authorities were deliberately misled.

A law enforcement official said manslaughter by criminal negligence could also be applied if investigators were able to prove that officials took steps to conceal suspected COVID-19 cases on board but added: “It’s hard to convict on.”