An academic who helped NSW Police review dozens of suspected gay hate deaths has broken down while giving evidence at a public inquiry, describing the impact of feeling "the weight of the dead on my shoulders".
The inquiry is investigating unsolved cases between 1970 and 2010 which may have been the result of LGBT hate crimes, and has this week been scrutinising the work of Strikeforce Parrabell.
That project, which resulted in a final report in 2018, involved detectives re-visiting some 88 cases — which are also within the inquiry's scope — and an academic team was hired to also offer opinions.
The Parrabell report concluded less than one third of the cases involved or were likely to have involved "gay hate" features, while 23 were considered unsolved.
Derek Dalton, a former Flinders University Associate Professor, and one of three academics who won the Parrabell tender with a quote of $50,750, has conceded the bias crime indicator "tool" police used to classify the cases was inadequate.
In the witness box, he's faced questions about the adequacy of the methodology, his meetings with police and even whether his team had the appropriate credentials for the job.
Dr Dalton at times fought back tears while insisting he did the best he could and said he felt like he was being "attacked".
Today, he became emotional while describing the impact of reading material about the cases as "personally onerous".
"These were just people who met with terrible deaths, perhaps not necessarily homicide, but a death nevertheless in every case often in horrific circumstances," he said.
"The stuff you had to read, it's terrible. You never forget it. Extreme violence, extreme hatred and animosity.
"I'm not saying it as some sort of flippant throwaway line, I felt the weight of the dead on my shoulders every day I did this task."
Dr Dalton said he was initially excited about the tender and thought it would be "interesting" to work with police, but realised he was naive.
Under cross-examination by Mark Tedeschi, KC, who is representing NSW Police, Dr Dalton said the length of time he ended up spending on the project was eight times more than he quoted for, partly because it became a "passion project".
"I was just doing the best I could with an imperfect instrument in a busy life with other academic activities," he said, through tears.
"I don't quite understand the animosity of this process."
Dr Dalton said there was a "genuine effort" on the part of the academics and police to reach opinions about the cases and there was no attempt by police to "apply any pressure" to the academics to reach consensus.
Previously, he described the project as a "poisoned chalice" from the start and said it resulted in him being wrongfully cast as a "police apologist".
"I've spent years of my life documenting hate against gay people and to be constructed as such is a despicable thing," he said earlier this week.
The inquiry continues.
