Charges against police officer Senior Sergeant Paul Cliffe dropped
Corruption charges against Gisborne Senior Sergeant Paul Cliffe have been dropped in court without reason.
Victoria
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Prosecutors have dropped corruption charges against a senior police officer once honoured for his decades of service.
Senior Sergeant Paul Cliffe, 66, was facing five offences, including conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in public office.
But the charges were withdrawn in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday, with no reason given for the decision.
The charges stemmed from an internal investigation into former homicide detective Calum McCann, who was hit with 87 offences in 2022, including conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, perjury, intimidating witnesses and creating false documents.
On Monday, 59 of his charges were also withdrawn.
Mr McCann, who ran a team at Gisborne Police Station between 2018 and 2021, is accused of directing junior officers to falsify affidavits to obtain search warrants for suspected drug dealers’ homes.
Victoria Police previously said seven affidavits related to 12 addresses allegedly contained false information between 2018 and 2020.
The investigation cast doubt over the convictions of at least six people, and police contacted 15 individuals who may have been affected.
Sen-Sgt Cliffe, who served in the Solomon Islands with the AFP and at Broadmeadows and Flemington before Gisborne, was accused of falsifying a 2018 search warrant, misusing the police database, and helping conceal falsehoods in affidavits in 2020.
In 2016, he was recognised at Parliament House for his “distinguished” 40-year policing career.
At the time, he spoke of the growing dangers of the job, saying: “People don’t give respect, and you can get spat at and hurt at any time when you’re out on the beat. You see a lot more drugs and weapons than when I first started.”
Mr McCann is expected to face a committal hearing in November.
Originally published as Charges against police officer Senior Sergeant Paul Cliffe dropped
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