Australia Investigates Charges of Police Corruption

Detective Sgt. Michael Drury was feeding his child when two gunshots tore through the kitchen window and into his stomach and shoulder.

Drury, an undercover agent of the New South Wales police, the largest force in Australia, survived. The bullet missed his heart after deflecting off a curtain rod.

Five years later, questions about the shooting remain unanswered amid allegations of police corruption, treachery and deception.

“A public inquiry into New South Wales police could make the Queensland inquiry look like small beer,” said a police source who declined to be identified.

The police force in neighboring Queensland is “riddled with misconduct, inefficiency and a contempt for the criminal justice system,” according to an official inquiry report released a few months ago.

Queensland’s former police chief, Terence Lewis, and 19 other officers and detectives face 94 charges arising out of the yearlong inquiry, the most extensive Australia has seen.

New South Wales is Australia’s most populous state, with more than a quarter of the nation’s 16 million people. It has a 12,500-member police force.

In November, New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner, vowing to ensure that the “forces of evil do not take charge,” appointed a special investigator to look into the Drury case.

The investigator, Howard Purnell, will conduct his inquiry behind closed doors and report at the end of March on alleged police cover-ups and bungling in the Drury affair.

“You have to ensure the average person has confidence in the integrity of the police force and the other arms of justice,” Greiner said.

“There are some very big battles being fought behind the scenes between honest police and those who would seek to destroy them,” state police minister Ted Pickering told parliament recently.

An official commission is scrutinizing another case in which police detective superintendent Harry Blackburn was arrested on charges of raping and kidnaping in suburban Sydney over a period of 20 years.

Police dropped all charges after it was revealed in court that they had failed to compare Blackburn’s blood type with that of the rapist. The blood types were found to be different.

Director of Public Prosecutions Reg Blanch conceded before the commission that police investigations over the Blackburn affair had been “incompetent, stupid or dishonest.”

Opposition members of Parliament demanded the Blackburn inquiry be given extended powers to investigate the Drury shooting and the possible underworld links of corrupt police.

Drury, 36, in a statement immediately after the shooting, accused Detective Sgt. Roger Rogerson of trying to buy his silence after Drury helped to break up a major heroin ring.

Later in court, Drury alleged Rogerson had offered him bribes to stop Drury from identifying drug dealer Allen Williams.

Williams was arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Drury. Williams told the court he offered $78,000 to Christopher Flannery, known in the underworld as “Mr. Rent-a-Kill,” to kill Drury.

Flannery has been missing, presumed dead, since May, 1985.

Williams, now serving a 14-year jail sentence, also implicated Rogerson, whom he said had dealings with Flannery. Rogerson denied the allegations.

The Sydney Supreme Court acquitted Rogerson of conspiring to murder Drury. He was also cleared of a charge of attempting to bribe Drury.

Rogerson, who was fired from the New South Wales police force, still faces two charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. His trial is scheduled for January.

The New South Wales government ordered the special investigation into the Drury shooting after the Daily Telegraph severely criticized the original police inquiry.

The newspaper also reported that former police commissioner Cec Abbott had appointed a senior officer to conduct the investigations, knowing that he was a friend of Rogerson.

But New South Wales police commissioner John Avery maintains that most of his force is honest.

“The great majority of police are working very effectively and fully support the aims and objectives of the police service,” he said.