‘Their deaths matter’: LGBTIQ hate crime inquiry begins in Sydney – Sydney Morning Herald

Gray said the special commission will aim to shine a light on “everything that is known and can be found out” about the deaths. He urged anyone with any information to come forward.

“Any recollections or pieces of information that you might have, however major or minor, could provide a vital link in understanding what happened. In some cases, it may ultimately lead to arrests and prosecutions,” Gray said.

“This applies with particular emphasis to anyone who was actually involved in, or saw, events that resulted in the death, or suspected death, of an LGBTIQ person a long time ago.”

Gray said there had been a long wait for justice and “this may be the last chance for the truth about some of these historical deaths to be exposed”.

A team of investigators, barristers and solicitors has already reviewed each of the 700 unsolved homicides in NSW between 1970 and 2010, and the 559 long-term missing person cases in that time, to look for characteristics indicating hate crimes.

Gray said this search turned up names that had not been previously mentioned in the public domain, which he would not divulge in his opening remarks.

The cases examined by the inquiry will include young men found dead at the bottom of cliffs in Sydney, a grandfather bashed to death in a Newcastle toilet block, and a series of shooting, stabbing and bashing deaths in homes and on public streets.

Two of the deaths are transgender women who were violently killed in their own homes – one in Kings Cross in 1985, and one at Kensington in December 1997.

John Russell, 31, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff at Marks Park in Sydney’s east in November 1989 with human hair in one of his hands, however this sample was lost by police. Other men had been brutally attacked in the area, which was a well-known gay beat.

Television newsreader Ross Warren, 25, vanished from the same park in July 1989 while visiting from Wollongong. His keys were found on a rock ledge, but his body was never located. A coroner later said the investigation into his death was “grossly inadequate and shameful”.

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Crispin Dye, 41, the former manager of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, died in hospital in December 1993 after he was found with significant head injuries in a laneway in Darlinghurst, close to popular LGBTIQ bars and nightclubs. Some evidence suggested he was bashed by a group.

Scott Miller, 21, a footballer and sports science student from Orange, was found dead in a wharf area near Darling Harbour in March 1997 after attending the annual Mardi Gras parade in Sydney with friends. An inquest found he died of multiple injuries inflicted by an unknown person.

The inquiry, which is due to deliver a report in July next year, has already accumulated and reviewed more than 120,000 separate documents, including 370 boxes of records. It will consider the findings of previous reports, including two parliamentary reports and a 2018 police review of 88 deaths suspected to be gay hate crimes.

The police review detailed that incidents of gay-hate violence occurred regularly, but these incidents were not routinely reported or investigated.

This meant perpetrators “were given a kind of ‘social licence’ to continue inflicting violence upon members of the gay community,” the police review found.

The inquiry will not freshly examine the death of Scott Johnson, who was found at the bottom of a cliff at North Head in December 1988, because his case remains before the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The hearing continues.

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