15
submitted 1 year ago by forcequit@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

The special commission of inquiry that opened in November 2022, is examining unsolved deaths suspected of being LGBTIQ hate crimes in NSW between 1970 and 2010.

Justice John Sackar, who is presiding over the inquiry has described police conduct as "unprofessional" for failing to produce documents in time.

He was due to submit his final report by August 30, 2023, but the deadline has been extended to December 15, after police delayed providing documents and the discovery of new forensic evidence.

Today Counsel Assisting Peter Gray SC, said the inquiry had partly been extended after NSW Police submitted more than 50 new witnesses should be spoken to before any findings are made.

Mr Gray said the 50 individuals have been asked to provide statements, but nearly half have not responded.

He said that since at least 2016, "serious ongoing difficulties in locating documentary records and exhibits in unsolved cases" has been well known within the police force.

This is making it difficult to reinvestigate unsolved homicides.

Mr Gray referred to a police internal document submitted to the inquiry, dated 2018, which outlined the task officers were facing.

"One internal police document in recent years estimated that if the unsolved homicide team continued to review cases at its then current rate, it would take 900 years for existing cases to be reviewed," he said.

"I note in passing that even as late as last week, in mid-September, yet more belated documentary production was still being made by the NSW Police Force.

"That production of material last week, was in response to a summons issued in August 2022, more than a year ago."

Mr Gray told the inquiry NSW Police represents itself to the community as having a "competent and adequately resourced team to deal with unsolved homicides".

He noted it was common for a coroner to refer matters to the unsolved homicide team.

"It is assumed that, when doing so, the coroner and relatives of a deceased person expect ... the matter will be considered by the unsolved homicide team within a reasonable time, and not a period of time that can be measured in centuries."

A number of high-ranking officers have been questioned at the inquiry about incomplete records, lost exhibits, and investigative failures into unsolved LGBTQI deaths

top 1 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] BadTakesHaver@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

clearly, they need more funding to address this /j

this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
15 points (100.0% liked)

news

23523 readers
670 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS