Push for inquiry into gay hate crimes to investigate claims police turned blind eye – ABC News

Legal observers say a judicial inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes in New South Wales must investigate claims that police officers turned a blind eye or were involved in the attacks.

A series of brutal bashings and murders in Sydney brought terror to the LGBTI community for decades, amid failures to properly investigate.

“It was a night out for certain sections of the community to go and bash a few gays after being in the pub,” John Agius SC told 7.30.

“It was a game and it was also a rite of passage. Police were often not interested in investigating reports.

“Often they ridiculed the complainant, and more likely than not, the perpetrators wouldn’t be caught.” 

Mr Agius represented the family of Scott Johnson, whose death in 1988 is now being treated as a gay hate murder.

A man is due to face trial and has pleaded not guilty. 

The Perrottet government will set up a judicial inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010, following the recommendations of a parliamentary committee that found NSW Police were indifferent to such crimes and failed to properly investigate them at the time. 

Mr Agius said the inquiry may lead to new evidence in other cases or bring to light previously unreported crimes.

“It gives people an opportunity who haven’t yet reported the crimes committed upon them, or committed upon others to their knowledge, to come forward,” he said.

Gay hate crimes a ‘sport’ in Sydney’s dark past

Gay men would often vanish, according to activist and historian Garry Wotherspoon. 

His friend, a fellow university lecturer called Yuri, was one of them. 

“In all probability he was at a beat at Bondi probably, and he ran into one of these gangs, and they threw him over the cliff and he drowned and that was the end of Yuri,” he told 7.30.

During that era, assaults on gay people were commonplace, with reports of more than 20 incidents a day.

“I was first bashed in 1969 when I came out of a gay dance in Petersham,” Mr Wotherspoon said.

“When I was getting up off the ground, the kid was there, and he actually said to me, ‘No hard feelings mate’. It was a sport for them.”

He hopes the inquiry will provide an answer to what happened to his friend. 

“Yuri’s name comes to mind. I wonder if anything will come up about Yuri’s case, so I think it’s important that the judicial inquiry does delve deeply into this very dark past,” he said.

Call for royal commission powers to solve crimes

Former Supreme Court judge, Anthony Whealy QC, said the inquiry needed royal commission-style powers to compel witnesses and bring justice for the victims and the families. 

“Gay crimes were sometimes not treated seriously, where investigations were not done adequately, and I think that it will shine a bright light on those deficiencies,” he told 7.30. 

“If there are serving officers who turned a blind eye to what was happening, or had any hand in the commission of hate crimes against gay people, I think they should have every reason to fear this inquiry.

“On the other hand we can expect other members of the police force in this day and age to be proactive in uncovering those past misdeeds.”

Claims police involved in attack

Three decades ago when he was 32, Alan Rosendale recalls being beaten by a group of men on a Sydney street one night. 

“I can remember being on the ground, having my head bashed by what I thought were planks of wood, and that would be it, I was going to be dead,” he told 7.30.

“No-one was going to come and save me.”

Mr Rosendale wants the inquiry to investigate whether his attackers were undercover police officers, based on the account of a witness who reported seeing the men jumping out of what he believes was an unmarked police car. 

“I would like a little bit of closure if these people who did attack me were the police,” he said. 

Mr Agius said the Rosendale case was worth investigating. 

“If there were perpetrators who are police officers then I’m sure that the current [Police] Commissioner would not oppose them being identified and being brought to justice,” he said.

NSW Police told 7.30 it had conducted extensive inquiries into Mr Rosendale’s case but could not find evidence that directly links his assault with the witness account.

It welcomed the judicial inquiry and said it would cooperate with it.

Watch this story on 7.30 on iview.

Favorite