Corrupt police behaviour, even if it is to
arrest and convict a criminal, can never be justified, a Sydney judge
has ruled. Michael Duffy reports.
SENTENCING two former police officers for fabricating
evidence, a judge has described the case as an example of ”noble cause
corruption”.
It was a tragedy that people with an unblemished past who had
contributed to society for years as police would no longer be able to do
so, Judge Paul Lakatos told the District Court in Sydney on Friday.
Michael Cox, Sharon Lucas and two other officers visited a house in
Nixon Crescent, Wagga Wagga, early on October 27, 2008, to investigate a
robbery during the night in which a car and a flat-screen television
were stolen. Later, police found three cars in a local reserve. The
stolen vehicle was on fire, another was driven from the scene and the
third was found to contain mobile phones and wallets.
One of the phones contained a photograph of the stolen television. One
wallet belonged to Matthew Prowse, of Nixon Crescent. When the police
arrived at his house, no one was home but the stolen TV could be seen
through a window.
The police decided not to obtain a search warrant but to enter
illegally. Cox proposed using a key found in Prowse’s wallet to gain
entry and then later they could say the front door had been open when
they arrived, and they had gone in because they heard noises and feared a
robbery was in progress. The others agreed.
Cox radioed the police station to say this was what they were doing,
and after the search, he recorded the false story in his police
notebook. It was signed by all the officers.
A fourth officer, Peter Fletcher, told a colleague he was reluctant to
put his name on a fact sheet containing the fabricated account.
Nevertheless, Prowse was charged and all four police wrote false
statements in support. But another officer, Andrew Brookes, told a
colleague what had really happened.
This led to an internal inquiry, during which the phones of the four
officers were tapped. They were heard exchanging comments about their
”scrumdown” – police collusion to give the same evidence – such as:
”We’re airtight, mate. We’re airtight.”
The four were charged and pleaded guilty. Fletcher and Brookes received
suspended sentences of 18 months each from Judge Stephen Norrish last
year.
Judge Lakatos said that while the agreement to fabricate a story had
been spontaneous, ”I doubt that the notion of improper conduct arose
then and there spontaneously”.
He said the action raised questions about whether such conduct had
occurred or at least been discussed by the officers before and
”whether there is a culture that justifies illegal practices when those
involved [i.e. the suspects] are believed to be guilty”.
Quoting from the report of the royal commission into police corruption
in the 1990s, he noted so-called noble corruption, to convict suspected
criminals, could lead to corruption for financial gain.
However, there was no suggestion this had happened at Wagga Wagga. The
illegal search had not even contributed to the conviction of Prowse for
the robbery.
Judge Lakatos said he would have taken a more severe view of the
offences had he not been constrained by the need for parity with the
sentences handed down by Judge Norrish. Cox was sentenced to two years
and Lucas to 18 months, both sentences suspended.
