NSW's police force has again been blasted by the judge heading the inquiry into gay hate crimes. He says he's 'sick and tired' of the force's attitude when it comes to providing records on time. This latest criticism came as the inquiry learned more about the opportunities that police missed in the high-profile Scott Johnson mystery.
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TVTranscript
00:00 A familiar problem and a familiar reaction.
00:05 How many times does your client have to be reminded that last minute production is absolutely unacceptable?
00:13 It is disruptive of the inquiry's proceedings.
00:16 Ten minutes before a witness was due to give evidence, police produced a document Council Assisting said was of central importance to the questions.
00:24 The Forces Council was blasted.
00:27 I'm sick and tired of your client's attitude in relation to these documents and it is yet again testimony to the fact that I think your client doesn't know where half its records are.
00:36 The inquiry is investigating dozens of deaths in New South Wales that may have been gay hate crimes.
00:41 The mystery document's relevance was soon clear.
00:44 In 2012, former cold case detective Alicia Taylor reviewed the case of American Scott Johnson who died at Cliffs Inn Manly decades earlier.
00:54 She urged police to consider an investigation targeting known persons of interest who have been charged with offences against homosexuals in the Northern Beaches,
01:03 which may produce further lines of inquiry and enable covert opportunities to gather information.
01:10 The inquiry has previously heard that four of her superiors ranked the priority as nil, which meant closing or suspending the case.
01:18 The witness had never seen their document before.
01:21 I can't make comment on what decisions were in this process of making this prioritisation.
01:27 The recommendations I thought were valid at the time I did my review.
01:31 Scott Philip White was arrested in 2020 and is serving a nine year jail sentence for Dr Johnson's manslaughter.
01:38 That case may be solved, but issues around how it was handled are still in focus at the inquiry.
01:43 Tomorrow's witness is one of the four senior officers who signed off on the nil priority score.
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]