NEWS > 04 August 2006

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Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney
04 August 2006

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Police accused of sex cover-up

THE Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, was under fire last night after being accused of failing to act for four years to stop sexual misconduct at the police academy in Goulburn.

The NSW Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, said that every year for the past four his office had asked senior police for a clearer code of conduct concerning relationships between staff and students.

He said he had sent a report to Mr Moroney and the Police Minister, Carl Scully, in January raising concerns about the police follow-up to serious misconduct at the college in 2002 and he was not satisfied with the response.

This year there had been eight complaints about officers at education services command or the police college. "Complaints about officers having sex with students continue to be made."

The Ombudsman dealt with allegations against 30 officers in 2002. Of these, 23 were found to have had sex with students.

More than 100 complaints have been made about education services officers since 2003, including 18 of a sexual nature, seven of which resulted in "adverse findings".

In 2004 a senior constable stationed at the college had placed a "chocolate bar to his groin as a phallic symbol and asked a female colleague to bite it".

He also sent a picture of his genitals to a female colleague's mobile phone and showed a similar picture on his own phone to another female colleague.

The Ombudsman had pressed for the officer to be sacked, but police refused. He was, however, transferred from the college.

In 2002, an officer told a student that if she "didn't perform a sexual favour he could prevent her from passing the course". The same officer had grabbed a woman on the buttocks one night and was pushed away. The next day, he had told her "women don't really belong in the force. You aren't strong enough to handle it."

No action was taken against that officer other than managerial counselling. When the Ombudsman asked for a stronger response, the police said that on legal advice "no further action could be taken".

Another officer who had sex with four students was given a warning and put on a "12-month conduct management plan".

Mr Barbour said "the action taken against officers found to have engaged in misconduct was in many cases too little, too late" .

"Some officers have been treated leniently in past investigations because having sex with students was not clearly prohibited," he said.

Mr Moroney went on the counter-attack yesterday, saying the Ombudsman's report was "historical". Mr Barbour has appeared before a parliamentary committee arguing that he should be allowed to keep powers to oversee the police. The Government is understood to be considering taking away some of these powers and leaving more to the Police Integrity Commission.

"The Ombudsman's office has waited four years to release a public report," a NSW police statement said. "Since 2003, the number of sustained complaints has declined significantly. There have been seven sustained complaints of breaches of professional distance of a sexual nature."

Mr Moroney believed some wrong decisions had been made and if the same incidents occurred now, officers would be sacked. He said officers complained against were still in the force because he could not conduct a second investigation and dismiss them under industrial relations law.

The commander of education services, Tony Aldred, and Mr Moroney's office said a new conduct code had been drawn up for the college in 2003 and there were no plans for another one.

But Mr Barbour said he had in his possession a letter from Assistant Commissioner John Carroll, written last April, which referred to a new code being completed.

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Article sourced from

Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney04 August 2006

Police accused of sex cover-up

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Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney
04 August 2006