Black constable's ordeal compared with Hurley's

THE hard line taken by Queensland police chiefs in May 2000 against a black constable is being compared and contrasted with the handling of white Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley amid plans for a protest march to state parliament today.

THE hard line taken by Queensland police chiefs in May 2000 against a black constable is being compared and contrasted with the handling of white Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley amid plans for a protest march to state parliament today.

In the weeks after 17-year-old Angela Mealing vanished from her Cairns home on April 2, 2000, homicide detectives became suspicious of one of their own - a serving police officer. Contact between Mealing and the third-year constable, the last person to see her alive, worried police.

After the constable admitted picking up Mealing as she walked alone along a Cairns street, detectives questioned him repeatedly. Their suspicions were heightened by the differing versions he allegedly gave about his movements on the night Mealing disappeared.

Accused by senior police of attempting to mislead detectives, who believed Mealing had been murdered and her body dumped, the constable strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

On May 17, 2000, he was ordered to go to the office of Far North Regional Assistant Commissioner Col Macullum, where he was told of the decision to suspend him immediately. According to the then chief spokesman for police, Brian Swift, the grounds for suspension were: "The allegations of being untruthful to police during the course of investigation into the death of Angela Mealing."

The constable was subsequently sacked. Neither the Queensland Police Union nor the Cairns community made any objection.

Six years later, Mealing's death remains unsolved, while the constable is on trial for perjury arising from subsequent evidence that he offered.

The situation facing Sergeant Hurley is also serious, but the official responses have been different. After a long-running inquest into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, while in custody at Palm Island police station, Queensland's Deputy Coroner Christine Clements two weeks ago ruled that he died as a result of injuries inflicted by the officer in charge, Sergeant Hurley.

As well as pinning responsibility for Doomadgee's death on Sergeant Hurley, the officer was also described as untruthful.

The Deputy Coroner's written judgment has been referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to determine if Sergeant Hurley should face a criminal trial.

However, Sergeant Hurley remained on duty with the backing of the Queensland Police Service and the powerful Police Union until the weekend, when he announced he had "voluntarily" stepped down from active duties pending the outcome of the DPP's review of the case.