New South Wales police have reopened active investigations into two of the state’s 854 unsolved murders as part of their response to a landmark inquiry that found they failed to properly investigate dozens of potential gay hate crimes over 40 years.
The two murders are being investigated while detectives look at a further 213 case files prioritised by a special unit of the state’s police force – Taskforce Atlas - which was launched to oversee the implementation of the gay hate crime inquiry’s recommendations.
All 19 recommendations made by the inquiry’s commissioner, John Sackar, at the end of last year were formally accepted by the state government on Thursday.
Senior police involved in the taskforce explained the cases being reviewed with the potential for further investigation were selected not because they were believed to be gay hate crimes but because they had gone the longest without being revised.
Asked if there was genuine hope to convict such old cases, the police commissioner, Karen Webb, said it was never too late to open a cold case.
“What is important is that we maintain our exhibits and we review those exhibits frequently as technology emerges,” she said.
“Things have progressed a lot over the years.”
Webb repeated her apology for the harm caused by police over the decades and said she had seen a lot of progress within the force during her career.
As per the recommendations, the plan is to review all unsolved cases as soon as possible with the hope fresh eyes and new technological advances could bring justice to families that have waited decades.
About 25 cases have already been dismissed for further investigation and will be reviewed again in two years.
Speaking alongside Webb, the senior NSW minister Penny Sharpe thanked all of the campaigners for their advocacy and care.
“The perpetrators of those crimes have yet to be brought to justice … there are people who died … there are people who were violently assaulted,” she said.
“We cannot shy away from the fact there are perpetrators who still live among us, who have murdered people in this state.”
The state’s police minister, Yasmin Catley, said she wanted the community to “call us to account” on implementing the recommendations because “they are the right thing to do”, although she did not have a timeframe set for implementation.
No additional funding has been allocated to the police to implement the recommendations.
In his final report released in December, Sackar said police had often responded to victim’s families with indifference, negligence, dismissiveness and hostility.
Police officers are set to undergo additional and ongoing training regarding interactions with the LGBTQ+ community, including the role of unconscious bias and its impact.
– with Australian Associated Press
