NEWS > 04 July 2007

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Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney
04 July 2007

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'Highly decorated' cop brought

A former Australian Crime Commission officer has been brought back from Cambodia against his will - despite there being no formal extradition agreement between the two countries - to answer armed robbery and drug charges.

James McCabe, a former Victorian drug squad officer who was seconded to the elite national agency in 1999, has been accused of ripping off a drug dealer and then onselling the amphetamines he confiscated.

McCabe, who has been living in Cambodia since November 2004, was last week "informally extradited" from Cambodia and today pleaded not guilty to one count of armed robbery and one count of selling a commercial quantity of amphetamines.

Dressed in a leather jacket and looking tired and unshaven, McCabe sat quietly at the Downing Centre District Court as his lawyer, Gordon Elliot, argued for bail.

Mr Elliot referred to his client as a "very highly decorated police officer" who had been granted an award by the Cambodian Government in 2003 for "his services to that country".

McCabe, who was working in the tourism industry in Cambodia, where he has a wife and three-month-old boy, was committed to trial in his absence last year after refusing to return to Australia.

Australian authorities had attempted to force him to return but had been hampered by the lack of a formal extradition treaty between the two countries.

However Police Integrity Commission investigator Errol Ryan told the court the Cambodians had agreed to surrender McCabe in June.

"We received advice on the 20th of June that the Cambodian Government had arrested Mr McCabe and wanted him out of the country as soon as possible," he said.

Mr Ryan travelled to Cambodia, secured McCabe, and brought him back to Australia in handcuffs.

In applying for bail, Mr Elliot said McCabe was not a risk to witnesses in the upcoming trial, and challenged Mr Ryan to provide proof of any threat.

In response, Mr Ryan related a conversation between McCabe and a third party about a witness, codenamed APW5.

McCabe allegedly said words to the effect of "if he doesn't do what he's told he's dead", Mr Ryan said.

In denying bail, Justice Colin Charteris said McCabe's previous unblemished record did not detract from the "extreme seriousness" of the charges, and he was not satisfied that McCabe was not a flight risk.

"In February 2006 to June 2007 your client was aware he was under serious charges ... he never returned from Cambodia. How can I be satisfied he will stay now?" Justice Charteris asked Mr Elliot.

A trial date will be determined on Friday.

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Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney04 July 2007

'Highly decorated' cop brought

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Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney
04 July 2007