NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has apologised to the families of gay hate crime victims after a damning report found officers were “indifferent, negligent, dismissive or hostile”.
The report from a Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes in NSW made 19 recommendations in December last year, including fresh inquests into the deaths of several men.
For 18 months, the inquiry investigated the suspicious deaths or unsolved murders — potentially motivated by gay hate bias — of LGBTIQ people over 40 years.
In the report, commissioner Justice John Sackar’s recommendations included monitoring DNA databases for matches to forensic evidence uncovered by the inquiry, and a review of all unsolved homicides between 1970 and 2010.
Justice Sackar stopped short of formally recommending an apology by NSW Police to the LGBTIQ community, but urged the organisation to “consider the value of sincerely and unequivocally acknowledging the shortcomings of the past”.
Commissioner Webb today said she was sorry and promised NSW Police would learn lessons from the inquiry’s findings.
“To the victims and families that NSW Police failed by not adequately and fairly investigating those deaths between 1970 and 2010, I am sorry,” she said.
“I realise that this has meant missed opportunities to identify possible offenders as new leads emerged or as new forensic advances became available.
“And I acknowledge the increased suffering experienced by victims and their families where the crimes were motivated by bias against members of the LGBTIQ community.”
Commissioner Webb said NSW Police would “use these lessons to continue to improve”.
Of the 34 deaths considered by the inquiry, Justice Sackar found there was “objectively reason to suspect that LGBTIQ bias was a factor” in 21 deaths, and that “LGBTIQ bias was a factor” in four deaths.
The other nine deaths were found to be either misadventure or suicide.
The inquiry recommended fresh inquests into the deaths of Scott Miller, Paul Rath, Richard Slater and Carl Stockton.