NSW Police assertions that a dozen homicide investigations and reviews are stalled due to a gay-hate crimes inquiry are “offensive” and “misguided”, according to the judge running the probe.
The special commission of inquiry, in its second block of hearings, is examining the police approach to suspected LGBTIQ hate crimes between 1970 and 2010.
Counsel assisting, Peter Grey SC, told the inquiry on Monday a letter from NSW Police had asserted that “considerable” resources had been diverted to answer summons and produce documents for the commission.
The police letter claimed that due to the inquiry’s orders, “around 12 investigations and reviews by the unsolved homicide team have had to be placed on hold”.
The letter was similar to one sent by police in October that referred to the “stalling of live investigations and reviews” due to the need to comply with orders of the inquiry, Mr Grey said.
Responding to the letter, Commissioner Justice John Sackar said for police to allege deliberate interruption of unsolved homicide work was without foundation and “frankly unacceptable”.
“If it’s intended to put pressure on this commission it’s not going to work, if it’s intended to be offensive it worked because it is offensive,” Justice Sackar, who is helming the inquiry, said.
He said he would dismiss the claim as a “misguided and misconceived assertion by someone who may well have entirely underestimated the resources the NSW police need to perform the task”.
Also on Monday, Mr Grey said police, in the letter, had asked the inquiry to petition the NSW government for more funding “to increase staffing levels available to the unsolved homicide team”.
“If the police had chosen not to resource themselves sufficiently to meet … requirements that’s not a problem that can be laid at the door of the special commission,” Mr Grey said of the request.
Counsel for NSW Police, Mark Tedeschi SC, described criticism of his client as unjustified, saying 11 police officers – several of them senior – had been involved in the “immense task” of complying with inquiry summonses.
“The whole task has been a very, very involved one,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Tedeschi said his client was “very concerned” about evidence planned to be led this week, calling it irrelevant to the inquiry’s terms of reference.
He argued that topics outside the inquiry’s scope included the creation of the police bias crime unit, and the creation and operation of Strike Force Parrabell – a taskforce that reviewed 88 deaths from 1976 to 2000.
Another concern, he said, was that case summaries prepared by Parrabell would be publicised, urging “serious consideration” before their admission.
“Those who advised the governor did not want you to inquire into the adequacy or inadequacy of Parabell … but merely have regard to the material which they have unearthed,” Mr Tedeschi submitted.
In response, Mr Grey described the timing of the objection as surprising and very late, and said the relevance of Parabell was obvious.
The inquiry is set first-up to hear evidence from Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, who led the three-year Parabell review.
Other witnesses due to appear include a member of the crime prevention command and former and current co-ordinators of the force’s hate crime unit.
The probe’s first tranche of hearings, in November 2021, heard from the LGBTIQ community, with much evidence relating to violence against gay men.
The inquiry continues on Tuesday.
– AAP
