NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has accepted difficulties locating historical evidence by the unsolved homicide squad hindered investigations, an inquiry has been told.
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Lawyer for NSW Police, Mark Tedeschi told the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes on Thursday, Ms Webb considered past practices to be the root of the problem.
"The commissioner of police accepts that there have been significant issues in relation to the location of documentary material relating to historical cases," Mr Tedeschi said.
"Those issues highlight the failings of previous practices in decades past with the storage and the recording of the files."
Ms Webb acknowledged the issues likely made it harder for investigators on unsolved homicides to know if they had complete records of evidence.
"The unsolved homicide team has encountered difficulties in reinvestigating some cases because of those previous practices whereby, for example, old files were kept in a variety of places including at police stations, not obviously connected with the relevant case," Mr Tedeschi told the inquiry.
The storage of evidence has become a significant focus of the inquiry after files it requested couldn't be produced on time or, in some cases, not at all, despite the sustained efforts of lawyers and police.
A former top public prosecutor, Mr Tedeschi questioned the inquiry's approach to procedural fairness for witnesses who appeared without legal representation, which he said ran the risk of having findings called into question.
Numerous people had been called to provide statements to police regarding matters raised by the inquiry.
"In the absence of the steps that we suggested to afford procedural fairness, a real risk would have arisen and some of those parties could and quite possibly would have sought to have any findings against them reviewed in the Supreme Court," Mr Tedeschi said.
Also giving evidence to the inquiry on Thursday was former ABC journalist and Lateline host Emma Alberici.
In a submission, Ms Alberici said she was told by former NSW Police detective chief inspector Pamela Young, that actions by the family of murdered gay American mathematician, Scott Johnson, led to his case being prioritised over others.
Ms Alberici said in her opinion, Ms Young was troubled the family's "string-pulling" had led to interference by government in police matters.
"Far from being disinterested in solving a potential cold case gay hate murder, Pamela wanted the broader public to understand how unusual it was for a case to be thoroughly investigated three times...when most senior commanders had long ago established that the case had zero solvability," Ms Alberici said.
Mr Johnson's case was initially ruled a suicide, however, earlier this year Scott Phillip White was found guilty of his manslaughter and jailed for nine years.
Australian Associated Press
