Police Clean Up Their Act
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 26, 2005
It started as a car chase and ended in claims of a stitch-up, writes Malcolm Brown.
IT COULD have been just a minor incident in the panorama of country policing - a detective noticing a car parked outside a Wagga second-hand shop had expired registration labels and feeling duty-bound to act. Detective Senior Constable Tim Briggs saw Allan Hathaway, who was known to the police, emerge from the shop and tried to pull him over. Hathaway took off, with Briggs chasing and calling for help. The police, including Senior Constable Christopher Jackson and his partner, Constable Julie Philpott, closed in. Hathaway left his car and started jumping backyard fences, scraping and cutting himself as he did so and leaving a trail of blood. He ended up in an unoccupied house, where he hid under the bed in a child's room. Jackson, following the blood trail, went into the house and ordered Hathaway out from under the bed. The officer told the Police Integrity Commission in Wagga this week that Hathaway then overturned the bed onto him. Jackson pushed the bed back. He later told a duty officer, Inspector Tom Murphy, the bed had hit Hathaway. Philpott entered and saw Hathaway bleeding badly, struggling and screaming. He was handcuffed and taken to the police station. Another duty officer took one look at him and called an ambulance. Hathaway had a shattered eye socket, other facial injuries and a right arm broken in three places. Stephen Rushton, SC, counsel assisting the commission, said aspects of Hathaway's arrest, on February 6, 2003, could not be readily dismissed, especially in view of the fact that police reports and evidence appeared misleading or untruthful. One view of the evidence, he said, was that the people of Wagga had been "badly let down". The home owner, contacted at work, returned home to find his son's bedroom splashed with a lot of blood. Murphy said he had been concerned that the house should not be left in this state and called for professional cleaners. He arranged to have the scene photographed beforehand. Murphy agreed this week that he had considered cleaning the scene a matter of priority but denied it was to cover up any improper use of force by Jackson. Rushton said Hathaway's injuries justified the event being proclaimed a "critical incident", meaning the area should have been sealed off, entry restricted and no physical evidence tampered with. This was done, but not until after the cleaners had been through. Murphy said many people came into police custody with injuries, and he had regarded the Hathaway case as another "assault police" situation. There was a further complication. The cleaner had discovered a 25 centimetre carving knife in the bedroom, apparent evidence that Hathaway had been armed. The police scenario was that Hathaway had grabbed the knife from a kitchen drawer. But the knife had no fingerprints and no DNA material and the kitchen area had virtually no bloodstaining. The suggestion was that it had been planted. Hathaway was ultimately charged with 10 offences, including using an offensive weapon to avoid arrest. He pleaded not guilty to the offensive weapon charge and the magistrate threw it out. The Police Integrity Commission resumes its hearings on March 7. It must try to answer whether Jackson assaulted Hathaway, or whether the injuries were accidental. It must also try to decide whether an attempt was made to plant the knife. In the absence of other evidence, answering such questions is a formidable task.
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald