NSW Police: Rotten apple cops on rape, stalking, drug and gun charges
- Details
- Category: Police Corruption and Brutality
- Created: Thursday, 28 April 2016 14:26
- Written by Janet Fife-Yeomans - The Daily Telegraph
While 32 of those police officers still facing court have been suspended, 11 of them without pay, another 21 remain on duty while being accused of breaking the law.
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DOZENS of serving police are facing criminal charges as serious as rape, child sexual assault, drug supply or firearm offences, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
While 32 of those still facing court have been suspended, 11 of them without pay, another 21 remain on duty while being accused of breaking the law.
Shaun William Moylan: Senior Constable who remains suspended from duty as he faces charges of allegedly bashing a man in custody at Dee Why police station in April last year.
Another 26 have been charged with assault and three face charges of contravening a domestic apprehended violence order.
The details obtained by The Daily Telegraph under freedom of information laws have embarrassed the NSW Police Force.
Two officers have even been arrested interstate, with one charged with drink driving and evading police in Tasmania and another accused of serious assault of a police officer and obstructing police in Queensland.
“The fact there are 53 police in this position does take me by surprise,” said Mr Small, who headed the investigation into serial killer Ivan Milat.
“They should be resolved very quickly and openly to retain the confidence of the community.”
Assistant Commissioner Peter Gallagher, commander of professional standards, said for an officer to be suspended without pay they would need to have been remanded in custody or have admitted behaviour that made them unfit to continue work.
“The police force itself shows no favours and police will charge and prosecute any officer who (allegedly) commits a criminal offence,” he said.
“There’s no place in the force for someone who commits a serious offence. There’s no tolerance for that.”
Highway patrol cop Stephen Alan Saltmarsh, 39, remains a serving officer despite pleading guilty to issuing bogus speeding tickets to non-existent overseas drivers in May and June last year. His case was last month “discharged unconditionally” in Wagga Wagga Local Court.
Another police officer was suspended from duty in February charged with historic child offences.
The officer, who is attached to the Central Metropolitan Region, has been charged with aggravated indecent assault, an act of indecency, two counts of inciting an act of indecency, aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of sexual intercourse with a child.
The offences allegedly happened in 2011, before he joined the police.
Earlier this month, a senior-constable was charged with shoplifting a jacket from a department store in December and an off-duty female sergeant needed an ambulance after being found “next to a vehicle” along the M4.
She was charged with refusing to provide a breath analysis.
There are 16,678 officers in NSW, 73 of whom had criminal convictions and traffic offences as at January 20 this year. The 53 currently facing charges are additional to that.
“We work very hard to put integrity at the front of everything we do and we know that’s what the community expects of every officer. Those who fail that test, let their colleagues down,” Mr Gallagher said.
Former detective Michael Kennedy said there was a case for police to be held more accountable than the general public when charged with criminal offences but, as the law stood, they were innocent until proven guilty,
“It might not sit well with people that these officers are still at work but you cannot apply a different rule for police as you do for everyone else,” said Dr Kennedy, who is head of the bachelor of policing program at the University of Western Sydney.
Below: These four police officers who are will go to trial on perjury charges over the fatal shooting of a mentally ill man in a Lakemba house in November 2009.
SERGEANT IN COURT ON BOOZE CHARGES
Megan Drapalski
A NSW Police sergeant found lying next to a police car on the M4 Motorway earlier this month has appeared in court charged with refusing to take a breath test.
Blacktown Police were called to the M4 Motorway at Eastern Creek on April 6 at 10.48pm to investigate reports a woman who smelled of alcohol was sleeping next to her car.
When they arrived they found a late model Holden Colorado registered to the NSW Police Force on the westbound side of the road, half on the grass and half on the road.
Roads and Maritime Services and an ambulance were already on scene.
Court documents state Sergeant Kylie Hedges was sitting in the car when an ambulance officer told police: “This is Kylie.”
“Kylie has had a bottle and a half of wine tonight and was driving to work at Surry Hills,” the officer was reported to have said.
“She got confused and ended up on this side of the motorway and she can’t remember how.
“She has thrown up out the side of the driver’s door and then laid beside the car.”
Court documents said she refused to take a breath test and was taken to Blacktown Police Station where she also refused to have a breath analysis.
Her case was heard for the first time yesterday in Blacktown Local Court and was adjourned to June 23.
FOUR PLEAD NOT GUILTY TO PERJURY
Sarah Crawford
FOUR police officers yesterday pleaded not guilty to lying under oath about the shooting death of a mentally ill man.
The four are accused of lying about the death of Adam Salter, 36, who was shot in the kitchen of his father’s Lakemba home after stabbing himself in the stomach on November 18, 2009.
Sergeant Sheree Bissett, Sergeant Emily Metcalfe, Senior-Constable Leah Wilson and Constable Aaron Abela face a combined nine charges of lying under oath at the coronial inquest into Mr Salter’s death in 2011 and a subsequent hearing at the Police Integrity Commission in 2012.
The Crown alleges they lied when they gave evidence that Constable Abela attempted to restrain Mr Salter before he was shot.
A trial is expected to begin at Downing Centre District Court next week.
Source : http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-police-rotten-apple-cops-on-rape-stalking-drug-and-gun-charges/news-story/057e2847f391b9c1d35918195a8a354b
