Corruption right at the top of the Australian Federal Police

Their boss is at least a bungler. He needs to go

Veteran Australian Federal Police officer Gerry Fletcher has waited a long time for vindication. The highly decorated fighter of organised crime - lauded by AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty in 2004 as a credit to the police in taking down drug syndicates over three decades - could hardly be blamed for dancing over the public humiliation of his professional nemesis.

Mark Standen, the assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission, who was arrested and charged this week over his alleged masterminding of a massive drug importation plot, had made three separate complaints of corruption or misconduct against Mr Fletcher in the past decade. All were later dismissed. The last, made at a private meeting with Mr Keelty in 2005, accused Mr Fletcher of tipping off a Sydney drug boss, the now deceased Michael Hurley, to an AFP Crime Commission investigation. This prompted Mr Fletcher's sacking.

The former narcotics strike team boss has since been reappointed to the AFP but is still waiting for a public apology from Mr Keelty. The Australian understands Mr Keelty and Mr Standen were members of a small group - the so-called 1979 club - of officers who had been with the AFP since its inception. Colleagues have said the two men worked closely together in the Redfern office of the AFP in Sydney in the early 1990s and went jogging together in the mornings. Mr Keelty refused to discuss his relationship with Mr Standen yesterday, although a spokesman for the commissioner denied that the two had been close. The spokesman also refused to respond to The Australian's question as to whether Mr Keelty would be offering Mr Fletcher a public apology.

Despite being cleared, and reinstated to the AFP this year on the orders of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Mr Fletcher's reputation has continued to suffer under the stain of MrStanden's allegations. But no more. Mr Fletcher, in an interview conducted through his Sydney lawyer, Terry Boyle, told The Australian yesterday he had been shocked by the reaction among the rank and file of the AFP to Mr Standen's arrest. "The change of attitude towards me of some people in the AFP, and outside, has been really surprising," he said. "My reputation was totally damaged from what he (Mr Standen) did, what the AFP did."

Mr Fletcher is constrained from revealing his full emotions because of the charges against Mr Standen, but says he could never understand why the allegations were not properly investigated. "If one person makes a complaint that doesn't stick, who cries wolf, wouldn't the next step be to look at testing the crying of that person?"

When the AFP was questioned by The Australian about whether the force intended to review Mr Fletcher's case and the Hurley tip-off, a spokesman for Mr Keelty said it would be inappropriate to comment on specific investigations. "The AFP is currently reviewing a range of matters involving potential connections to this investigation," the spokesman said. "It is not appropriate to outline the extent of these inquiries."

Mr Fletcher cannot hide his disgust at the way he was treated, and says he is still paying the price. Despite his reinstatement to the force, nine months after it was ordered by the AIRC, he is yet to be returned to operational duties, and now answers telephone calls from the public.

Mr Fletcher's latest trouble began when Mr Standen, at a private meeting with Mr Keelty in 2005, alleged that Mr Fletcher had tipped off Hurley about an investigation, allowing him to escape police. Hurley was later captured, and died last year before standing trial. The matter arose in April 2005, when Mr Fletcher answered his work telephone and agreed to meet a mystery caller the next day at a cafe across the road. His coffee companion was Hurley, then under investigation by the AFP and NSW Crime Commission for importing cocaine from South America through a gang with links to airport baggage handlers.

An old-style investigator, Mr Fletcher was widely known among criminal circles because of his arrest record and preference for building contacts and finding informants. After the 40-minute meeting, Mr Fletcher made a report to his superiors detailing the conversation, in which Hurley had said he would "soon be departing Australia for good". Before his death from cancer, Hurley was asked about Mr Fletcher's reputation on the street. "One hundred per cent honest," he said. "I think he's locked everyone up you can talk about."

Original report here. (Via Australian Politics)



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