Police collusion: Judge slams statement sharing

A judge has questioned NSW Police internal practices after two officers were accused of colluding on witness statements before they were used as evidence in a criminal case.

Judge John Catsanos SC considered rejecting the police officers’ evidence and told the Sydney District Court their collaboration on witness statements “undermines confidence” in the reliability of their evidence.

The officers were key witnesses in the case of a man who sued the state, claiming he was the victim of battery, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution during a 2020 arrest in Western Sydney.

The court heard one of the officers prepared his statement one week after the November 2020 arrest. One month later, he handed the statement to the second officer who did not complete his statement until March 2021. The first officer then witnessed the second officer’s statement.

Under cross-examination, the officers defended the exchange as a means for the second officer to “refresh his memory” about the arrest after being off work with a hand injury. It all raised the question of whether the officers could no longer be presented as reliable witnesses because there was “a degree of symmetry” in their statements.

Judge Catsanos was heavily critical of the officers and told the court their explanation was not “plausible”.

He called the collaboration “ill advised” but allowed their evidence to be used in the case and ruled the arrest was lawful.

Read the full article at The Courier Mail.