NEWS > 23 April 2007

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
23 April 2007

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Criticism weighed heavily on o

THE prospect of two weeks in the idyllic Whitsunday Islands off the central Queensland coast had not been far from Audrey Fagan's mind over the past month.
Before she left for the holiday, there had been lengthy talks with her boss, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, about the strain of media criticism of the performance of her police force, the arm of the AFP that looks after community policing in the ACT.
Ms Fagan, the ACT's Chief Police Officer, told Mr Keelty she was looking forward to the break away with her second husband, Chris.

Mr Keelty offered her counselling, but wanted a resolution to the media attacks on the failure of ACT police to inform the public of serious crimes. There were discussions about hiring a consultant to examine the problem and Mr Keelty was due to meet Ms Fagan again next Monday, on her return from holidays, to discuss changes to senior management.

The meeting will never take place, with Queensland police now investigating Ms Fagan's apparent suicide last week at the Hayman Island resort.

More than most, Mr Keelty knows how it feels to be the centre of media attention when things are not going your way.

"We were working together to work our way through that," he said at the weekend.

"Clearly any negative comments coming out of the media were something she was sensitive to - we're all sensitive to it, I'm sensitive to it."

However, no one was expecting her to take her life among the rich and famous at the $660-a-night luxury resort.

Queensland police are investigating the death as a suicide and have said there appear to be no suspicious circumstances. An autopsy is due to be held today in Mackay.

Staff at the resort are under instruction not to discuss the death, but said Ms Fagan did not appear upset before her death.

Her husband rushed back to Canberra on Saturday to comfort her 15-year-old daughter, Clair, from her first marriage.

Ms Fagan is the most senior AFP officer to die in office since AFP assistant commissioner Colin Winchester was murdered in 1989.
On her appointment as the ACT's chief police officer in 2005, Ms Fagan had juggled family and career and risen higher than any woman in the AFP.

The problems Ms Fagan confronted in ACT policing were all manageable on their own - but combined they appear to have become too much. "People are individuals," Mr Keelty said. "Sometimes it's very hard to fathom or understand what's on their minds."

Ms Fagan had been weathering the controversy stirred by revelations that police had withheld details of a sexual assault of a school student for more than two weeks. That was compounded by claims of corruption among middle-ranking officers.

The controversy over the sexual assault was taken up by the local newspaper, The Canberra Times, because it believed it was symptomatic of bureaucratic paralysis. It created a storm in Canberra, and Ms Fagan appeared on local radio, where talkback callers, including one purporting to be a victim of a serial attacker 12 months ago, defended the police.

The newspaper also mentioned the internal investigations into allegations of corruption among middle-ranking officers getting favours and freebies from building suppliers for work on homes. One person had recently been acquitted of charges arising out of the investigation. Since the police chief's death, The Canberra Times has reported that Ms Fagan used a contractor that did police work to paint her home.

Mr Keelty explained that the incidents occurred between 2000 and 2001 and were found to be relatively minor. He said she was counselled for poor judgement and no further action was taken.

The author of the criticism, The Canberra Times's veteran journalist and editor-at-large Jack Waterford told The Australian yesterday that he had been accused privately of having blood on his hands. He said Ms Fagan's death was upsetting but he did not resile from what he had written. "I don't think there is any doubt that it was a significant part of the pressure that was on her," he said.

"Perhaps with retrospect I wish I was more kind but I don't really resile from the things that I said.

"There has been a long-running inquiry into corruption in middle levels of the force. She was mentioned in passing but was not the target of it - but her judgement was found wanting in it."

The role of being the commissioner in any jurisdiction in Australia is difficult at the best of times.

But ACT policing insiders say that Ms Fagan's position carries an almost impossible brief: being accountable to the ACT Government but run as a division of the nation's federal police force.

The ACT tenders police services from the AFP. But with the AFP stretched nationally and on international engagements, as well as the best performers naturally seeking federal rather than local jobs, Ms Fagan's ability to build an experienced force was difficult.

Victorian Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland, whose name has been mentioned in speculation as a candidate to be the next NSW commissioner, was a contemporary of Ms Fagan and said he understood she had been under great pressure. "These jobs come with a lot of responsibility and it's difficult to think how you would avoid media scrutiny," he said. The pair started at the AFP together in their early 20s and had worked closely together. He said he was deeply affected by her death.

NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney described Ms Fagan as a dear friend who had made an impressive contribution to the policing agenda in Australia.

"Most notably, Ms Fagan did much to advance the role of women in policing not only within the AFP, but, equally as important, across the whole of Australia. We shall miss her dearly," he said.

His Victorian counterpart, Christine Nixon, the nation's most senior female police officer, paid tribute to the fact she balanced raising a family while being very committed to her work.

The tragedy has hit hard for the AFP, which lost two officers in the recent Garuda air crash in Indonesia. Mr Keelty said their prayers were with her family.

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Article sourced from

The Australian - Sydney,Austra23 April 2007

Criticism weighed heavily on o

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The Australian - Sydney,Austra
23 April 2007