CMC reports wild allegations as evidence

Queensland Police Union General President Ian Leavers has described the release of the CMC report today as media stunt filled in the main with wild allegations that cannot be proven in the courts.

“The report is the CMC’s belated take on one of its ‘behind closed doors’ investigations into issues that were addressed by the Police Service a long time ago,” Mr Leavers said.

“The private hearings conducted by the CMC gave oxygen to all sorts of allegations against police by persons who even the CMC acknowledge, may be “readily discredited”.

Of even greater concern is the feature that the police officers who were beset with these allegations were not even allowed to be present at the hearings to defend themselves, let alone to test the ‘evidence’ in the usual way i.e., through cross-examination, comparison of the ‘evidence’ with conflicting evidence given by other persons, the making of submissions as to the effect of the ‘evidence’ and the like. The result is a report that is as unbalanced as it is unfair,” Mr Leavers said.

The fact that there are only three criminal prosecutions arising from hundreds of allegations and coercive interviews over four years, is because much of the evidence relied upon in the report would not stand up in court for a second. Of the three matters currently before the courts our lawyers advise us that we have reason to be confident in those cases.

This is just the airing of a whole pile of allegations….mostly made by career criminals…that had so little credibility they could not satisfy the test to charge the officers concerned with criminal offences - let alone convict them.

This is nothing more than a media stunt by the CMC…if there was substance to all of the allegations in this report there would be 20 or 30 police facing the courts not just three.

The timing of the release of the report today has much more to do with a conference being hosted by the CMC next week where Russell Pearce Acting Assistant Commissioner, Misconduct Crime and

Misconduct Commission is scheduled to do a presentation regarding operation Capri.

Given the secret hearings involved it was obviously considered necessary to table a report in parliament so that it could be discussed at the conference. It would seem that the fact that three people currently face court and should be entitled to a fair trial was obviously of less concern than chest beating next week at their conference,” Mr Leavers said.