Officer who rescued Cleo Smith subject of CCC misconduct probe
Western Australia's corruption watchdog has found a former Senior Detective, who was involved in the rescue of kidnap victim Cleo Smith, engaged in serious misconduct. The CCC found Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine revealed confidential information to a young journalist with whom he was intimately involved.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Well, Cameron Blaine, over 32 years, reached the position of detective senior sergeant
00:06 and achieved international prominence in relation to the rescue of Cleo Smith in Carnarvon.
00:11 He entered the home there and recovered Cleo. She was found 18 days after being taken from
00:17 her tent at the Quobba Blowholes campsite. And her abductor, Terence Kelly, pleaded guilty
00:25 to 13 and a half years. So he was the public face of the investigation, certainly one of
00:30 them. So the Corruption and Crime Commission has found that he engaged in police misconduct
00:35 in two areas. One was the use of a motor vehicle for personal use. And that's as a state asset,
00:43 you're supposed to be able to go to and from a job one hour each way. But the CCC said
00:48 there were 62 instances of breaches of the vehicle policy, specifically in some cases
00:53 to see the journalist and another woman separately. The other issue was in relation to disclosure
01:00 of confidential information, repeated disclosure of confidential information to several people,
01:06 including the journalist he'd formed a relationship. Some of the disclosures weren't sought by
01:10 the journalist and some of the information wasn't used because of its confidential nature.
01:16 And just turning to some of the breaches that were identified in relation to the Cleo Smith
01:22 case, he'd taken a photograph of the Carnarvon operation room and he'd sent it to the journalist
01:30 and there was confidential information visible on monitor screens. He told the journalist
01:35 and another journalist about a particular capability that was used in the search for
01:40 Cleo, highly confidential information. The federal government had commented on those
01:45 capabilities but didn't mention what they were and they were secret. He'd also passed
01:52 on information in relation to the apparent behaviour of persons of interest in the Cleo
01:57 Smith case, the route taken by Terence Kelly, the fact that Cleo's sleeping bag hadn't
02:01 been recovered, offending by Terence Kelly, location of a particular building and threats
02:08 against police. He also passed on confidential information to the reporter about other serious
02:13 cases. Has there been any response from Mr Blaine,
02:17 the reporter? Well, the CCC said that his behaviour could
02:21 constitute grounds for termination. He had been stood down and it was revealed yesterday
02:26 that he had resigned from WA Police. The report said that Mr Blaine had contended that the
02:32 investigation was biased and inadequate and he'd denied making disclosures, particularly
02:39 in relation to the Cleo case. He does suffer from PTSD, it says in the report, but the
02:47 CCC said that that wouldn't necessarily explain his misconduct.
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]