WA: Final curtain draws near for Kennedy commission

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WA: Final curtain draws near for Kennedy commission

By Tim Clarke

PERTH, Aug 31 AAP - After 161 sitting days, Western Australia's royal commission intopolice corruption will conclude public hearings tomorrow - bringing to an end one of themost uncomfortable periods in WA police history.

Barry Matthews, who has served as police commissioner throughout the royal commission,will give evidence tomorrow, bring the curtain down on the $28 million inquiry.

The royal commissioner, retired Supreme Court judge Geoffrey Kennedy, QC, will deliverhis report and recommendations in three months.

Until then, the force's 5,500 police may reflect on the proceedings that they probablyhope have finally closed the book on some of the most controversial cases in WA policehistory.

The inquiry into allegations of corruption in the police service since January 1, 1985,has entailed about 2,500 exhibits, more than 17,700 pages of transcript, and a three-monthextension.

It was established in the wake of claims by the WA Anti-Corruption Commission thata "not insignificant number of detectives" had engaged in criminal or corrupt behaviour.

Although the headlines have not been as spectacular as those generated by the Fitzgeraldinquiry in Queensland - which led to the jailing of former police commissioner Terry Lewis- enough dirty laundry has been aired to raise eyebrows.

About 20 police either have been stood down or have resigned as a direct result ofthe hearings, with one facing criminal charges.

T2, whose name has been suppressed, was charged with seven counts of corruption andother offences, including stealing, aggravated burglary, and unauthorised computer access,after he was filmed allegedly trying to steal what he thought was $1.2 million in drugmoney.

Much of the drama during the 15-month public hearings has come from the "L-series"

of rollover witnesses - eight former police turned whistleblowers who were codenamed L1to L8.

Since January this year, they have revealed details - with immunity - of corrupt andillegal behaviour by themselves and as many as 50 other police.

Allegations included assaulting suspects, falsifying confessions, and stealing drugs,money and property, and forcing numerous other police to deny wrongdoing.

L5's accusations led one officer, whose name was suppressed by the commission, to commitsuicide in March, shortly after receiving notice that he could be subject to an adversefinding.

Detectives gave evidence that their dead colleague had an impeccable character, andwould not have been involved in anything corrupt or improper.

Some of the most emotional scenes inside and outside the inquiry came during the investigationinto the 1988 death of 18-year-old Stephen Wardle.

His bruised body had been found in an inner-city lock-up a day after he had been arrestedon suspicion of drunkenness, on his way to an AC/DC concert.

Seventeen police on duty when Mr Wardle was in the lock-up refused to give evidenceat an inquest into his death for fear of incriminating themselves.

Amnesty International had been calling for a thorough inquiry since 1996.

However, evidence to the royal commission by the police on duty that night appearedto erase the suspicion surrounding the teenager's death.

The evidence pointed towards a lethal cocktail of alcohol and pain killers, ratherthan brutality, as the cause of death.

Stephen's parents, Rosslyn and Ray Tilbury, finally got some sense of closure whenone of the police on duty apologised to them - leading Rosslyn to embrace the officeroutside the hearing room.

Much of the commission's intrigue came from its inquiry into the theft of millionsof dollars worth of diamonds from the Argyle mine in the state's far north in late 1989.

The case had attracted allegations of corruption and cover-ups involving some of thestate's most senior police.

A cache of pink diamonds, suspected of having been stolen from the mine, turned upin the hands of a Perth diamond polisher.

Six-and-a-half years later, Lindsay Roddan, 51, was sentenced to six years' jail forgem conspiracy. Barry Crimmins, an Argyle Mine employee, and his wife, Lynette, were alsoconvicted of gem conspiracy. Crimmins was jailed for four years. His wife got a three-yeargood behaviour bond.

But the three were not charged until after a third police investigation into the theft.

At the commission, all the interested parties once again told their sides of the story.

A former police commissioner, Brian Bull - whose 44-year career was blighted by thecase - told the commission he knew of no evidence of corruption by senior police.

Tomorrow, Matthews will bring the whole production to a conclusion.

Then the cast will retire to wait for the director, Geoffrey Kennedy, QC, to deliverhis verdict in late November.

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