Scott Andrew NICHOLSON

New South Wales Police Force – Resigned

ProCst # 94539   

Regd. #  20237

Redfern Police Academy Class 182 B

Rank: Commenced Training at Redfern Police Academy with Class 182B on Monday 8 March 1982

Probationary Constable – appointed 28 May 1982

Constable 1st Class – appointed 28 May 1987

Detectives Training Course 28/ 20 May – 28 June 1991

Senior Constable – level 9 upon Resignation

“possibly” Acting Detective Sergeant – Resigned

After resignation ( due to PTSD ) Scott was a Ranger with Liverpool Council until his death

Stations:  Campbelltown ( 1980’s ), Camden, Bulga, Fraud Squad, Child Mistreatment Unit

Service:  From ? February 1982 to ? ? 1996 = 14 years, 8 months, 6 days Service    

Awards:  No find on It’s An Honour

Illness: – PTSD – Suicide – carbon monoxide gassing in vehicle

Born:  Saturday 4 April 1959 in Temora, NSW

Died:  Thursday 14 November 1996

Age:  37 years, 7 months, 10 days

Funeral:  Leppington Lawn Cemetery, NSW

Funeral date:  ? ? ?

Buried at:  Cremated & Resting in the Fountain Garden, Nicholson plot,

 

 

PLEASE EVERYONE I ASK THAT YOU TAKE THE TIME OUT OF YOUR LIVES TO READ MY STORY. I’M LISA NICHOLSON AND MY FATHER WAS SCOTT NICHOLSON.

PLEASE JUST READ LIKE AND SHARE!!!!!!!!

 

[blockquote]Hi my name’s Lisa Nicholson and my father is Scott Nicholson. They say we are one big police family and we look after our own yet they don’t even care to see the damage there doing. My dad suicided when I was just 6 years old he was my world my life my everything. The day he died my world fell apart and the older I got the harder it hit me. I suffered and battled countless years of depression, I was raped and beat as a child and teenager and I had the balls to follow this through with court. But, tragically, all of this led to many suicide attempts.

Thankfully my dad had my back though I actually believed the world was so awful and painful that I belonged with my dad. I had a very hard time seeing other officers thinking that’s my dad he is as good a officer as you, yet why is he not remembered!??

He was so proud to be an officer and truly lived through his work right to the end! The end that the line of work he did helped drive him too!!! He worked his ass off to get the respect and acknowledgement that he gained and I’ve always been so proud to say that my daddy was a police officer!! Yet here these ass wipes are claiming that everything my father worked for his whole life everything he believed in and followed isn’t recognised. They claim that we’re one big family and in truth it has felt like that thanks to police legacy but then there’s the fact that I’ve got to, every single day, deal with the emotional grief that I will never see my daddy again and then there’s the fact that the man I love so much and am so proud to say he was an officer will never meet my daughter and my daughter will never meet her grandfather and that, in itself, has me pretty low but on top of all that these guys wanna destroy me; even more, give me no choice and take whatever is left in me to fight to have my daddy’s name on the police Remembrance wall; a wall that all our fallen officers are on, all except the ones who took things into there own hands. We’re one big family yet not only has their line of work taken my father and my daughters grandfather but they wanna take everything that I’ve left because they won’t respect what they’d say “one of our own” my dad deserves that respect and so do so many others and again they say we’re one big family but can they even see that their own choices, actions are killing us even more!!!!

I know I’m not the only one but I can only speak on behalf of myself. I wanna know why?? my daddy, the man that the only image I can recall is of him in his uniform, the man who tragically lost his life, the man who they claim death is not tragic enough to be remembered. Why??? I wanna know why?? my dad’s dead the same as officers who’ve died in the line of duty. Dead not coming back; he died from the pain and suffering from his job and they die in the line of duty but they’re telling me my dad’s death isn’t good enough or tragic enough.

No wonder half the population have lost faith in these guys. I will continue to support and stand tall and for as long as I can with everyone else and I won’t ever stop speaking out.

Your secret is no longer!

He will be remembered.

Thank you for reading my story. Please like and share this around. The more this gets around the more I hope will get in their face and finally remember all our lost men and women.

[/blockquote]

Police Officer Suicide Should Be Included on The Wall Of Remembrance

Thank you for sharing such a deeply personal and heart wrenching story of your journey Lisa! This is so courageous of you. The impact that your father’s death had on you and your family is something that the Police force haven’t been around to witness, acknowledge or support and sadly have contributed to your grief in doing so!

Glad to have you on this journey with us Lisa! Xx

Like · Reply · 3 · 2 hrs

• Sharona Sione Tylern Orlando Aweee hunni so heartbreaking thinking of you sweetie. X x x

  Like · Reply · 2 · 1 hr
• Lisa Nicholson No thank you for allowing me to share this!!! It is such a raw painful subject but I’ve had enough of holding it in and I can only hope that others have the courage to do the same. Will be on this journey till the end!!!!

  Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr

  Resting place of Scott:  [codepeople-post-map]

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  When Sharan’s happy-go-lucky husband became a monster

  By CYDONEE MARDON

  Jan. 9, 2015, 7:48 p.m.

  

  Sharan Nicholson-Rogers watched her husband change from a happy-go-lucky police officer into an unpredictable man prone to violent and emotional outbursts.

  The gentle bloke she loved grabbed hold of her one day and shoved his gun down her throat, telling her he couldn’t live any more because of what he was doing to their family.

  Eighteen months later, Detective Sergeant Scott Andrew Nicholson took his own life.

  That was 19 years ago.

  Today Mrs Nicholson-Rogers is as determined as she was the day her husband died to bring about change.

  [blockquote]” There is complete contempt for anyone who falls. They will kick you to the kerb. “[/blockquote]

  She is calling for the establishment of a centre of excellence – a place where police officers can go for respite, support and treatment from mental health professionals.

  “I know guys in the job right now who are crippled with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Mrs Nicholson-Rogers said.

  “They’re still working, doing their best to stay in the job, but they need help.

  “So many have gone through poor management and there is complete contempt for anyone who falls. They will kick you to the kerb.

  “[Sufferers] need a place where they can go, feel safe, be honest about the fact they need help to cope and a place where they can get the best available support from experts in the field.”

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers sought help for her husband when she saw the signs he was losing control.

  “He became this monster, he couldn’t help it, everything triggered him,” Mrs Nicholson-Rogers recalls.

  “I’d find him curled up in the foetal position, crying and crying.

  “One night we had a bunch of friends over, we cooked lamb on the Weber and I brought it in for him to cut up and he just lost it. He started smashing the kitchen up and screaming.”

  Later he revealed the charred lamb reminded him of two children he’d seen burnt to death in a caravan.

  

  “The kids were the same ages as ours,” Mrs Nicholson-Rogers said.

  She urged her husband to talk to his boss about his emotional well-being and asked him to contact police welfare.

  “He said to me ‘Are you serious? They’ll say go to the pub and have a drink, get over it’.

  “He didn’t drink much then but he soon learnt to so he wouldn’t be labelled a ‘sheila’.

  “They get this sick sense of humour, that’s the way they get through it. Down at the pub or the bowlo for a debrief then the wives are left to pick up the mess at the end.”

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers and her two children have been to hell and back since her husband’s 1996 suicide.

  It was only through counselling that Mrs Nicholson-Rogers, a health promotions officer with NSW Health, realised the true impact on her children.

  “The day Scott had the gun down my throat, my seven-year-old son witnessed that. I didn’t know at the time. It’s impacted on them terribly. As they got older they realised the enormity of what had happened. It’s been a really rough road for us.”

  Scott spent 13 years in the job, with stints in Camden, Campbelltown and a one-man station in the country.

  He died aged 37.

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers reached out for help when things got really bad.

  “I contacted police welfare the day after he went off his head about the barbecue, I told them he wasn’t well. He had his gun taken off him [temporarily]. They suggested maybe he should stay home, play housewife more, take more holidays, go for walks at night, debrief with his mates, that’s it.

  “He was suffering PTSD and he was told the best thing he could do is exercise.”

  Then one night Detective Sergeant Nicholson came home and told his wife he had resigned. Six months later he was dead.

  “We had been asking for help for a while, through his bosses. I tried senior management,” she said.

  “At one point when he got violent with me I said I’d had enough and I would have him charged if something didn’t change.

  “They said ‘Please don’t because we will have to take his gun off him’. I told them he needed help, he was a loose cannon, he will hurt someone.”

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers said suggestions he and other struggling officers were simply not right for the job was a cop-out.

  “I hear the same thing today, young guys now being told maybe they’re not right for the job, maybe they should get out. Well no-one is right for a job where day in, day out, they deal with trauma. Layer on layer it consumes them and no-one can take that without the proper support.”

  

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers, a nurse familiar with the trauma of frontline emergency, is one of several police wives willing to work with government and police officials to create the centre of excellence.

  “We can give a family perspective to help them set up a place where police can go in the short term and stay if they need to and feel safe, where they are not going to feel compromised or spied on by insurance companies.

  “We need change. The attitude of senior management has got to change.

  “Right now, if you say you’ve got a problem, you’re not coping, the bosses think ‘Oh great there’s another one off sick. That means a man down, overtime, it’s the cost.”

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers and a group of police wives believe they have a solution and are urging NSW Police Minister Stuart Ayres to work with them.

  

  “We need change. The attitude of senior management has got to change.”

  “I’m one of the lucky ones who have healed to a degree and married again to a man who totally supports my fight for change,” she said.

  “I would like to see him meet with us, it’s not about us canning him, it’s about working together collectively with all our experience as families, to pick our brains on what they can do to make a change. Hiding from it is not the answer.

  “They can’t keep turning their back. There are more and more suicides and experienced cops are dropping out. They are losing an experienced workforce that can be real value.”

  Mrs Nicholson-Rogers has a plea for the minister: “Don’t let any more families lose their husband, wife or parent by not making changes that you know will make a difference.

  “Just take a minute or two of your time to listen to my children if you can’t talk to me, see the pain and grief in their eyes and I assure you it will change your mind and you will work to make positive changes.”

  The NSW Police Minister was contacted by the Mercury but so far has not responded.

  The NSW Police Force has provided details of the programs and initiatives already in place for preventing PTSD and supporting its officers.

   

  For help and counselling: Lifeline 131114; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 65946 

  ---

   

   

• stephen • 2 months ago

  Please keep running these stories, there needs to be a ground swell of public contempt for this culture within the policing system. Only that way will there be some light at the end of the tunnel for these men and women, and their families, who are having their lives ruined whilst serving and protecting the public.

  Joey • 2 months ago

  So proud of you sharon !!! Step by step change is coming !!!
  We cant change the past but we can change the future and prevent other families feeling the same pain . Much love to you and the girls so proud ox

  Macca • 2 months ago

  Not everyone is mentally able to absorb the rigours of the Military or Emergency services.
  I note that the Police “spokesman” has declared that they have in place procedures to help if PTSD becomes a factor.
  Having some knowledge of this issue Why are the recruits not adequately assessed during training rather than waiting for the nightmare to begin?
  It may not catch all , but may help some before their life is destroyed.
  The military at least have programs to assess their recruits and place them in areas of higher or lower degrees of capability to absorb stress. it cannot be that difficult.
  I thank God my daughter changed her decision and followed nursing.

  Who knows Macca • 2 months ago

  Im not sure that you can 100% assess how a person will handle situations. I see myself as pretty resilient but that may all change if i saw the aftermath of a bunch of children stabbed to death.
  I guess u just never know.

  Lilstudent • 2 months ago

  You are a strong woman Sharon for campaigning for this and no doubt keeping the wounds raw for you. It is horrible that your husband was not given the support he needed, and I’m sure there are many others suffering in silence like a ticking time bomb.

  Ted • 2 months ago

  There used to be government run places people could go but they had a few issues that the media beat up and politicians could see a few bucks in selling off the real estate to themselves so……………………………………………………………………thank the dumb Aussie people.

  http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2807747/when-sharans-happy-go-lucky-husband-became-a-monster/?cs=4401

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N.S.W Police Watch

January 14, 2015 ·

13 January 2015

She said that they develop a “Sick Sense Of Humour” her husband put a gun in her mouth in front of her children, he took his own life some time after. She said they turn into monsters , and they lose track of reality and develop this “sick sense of humour” Black humour I know cops call it.. but those of us with a sense of balance and compassion, would call it “sick”.. Because it is “sick” Its as sick as the criminals they chase and lock up for doing “sick’ things, they themselves have a “sick” way after a while.. And it gets worse not better over time ..

“Sharan Nicholson-Rogers watched her husband change from a happy-go-lucky police officer into an unpredictable man prone to violent and emotional outbursts.

The gentle bloke she loved grabbed hold of her one day and shoved his gun down her throat, telling her he couldn’t live any more because of what he was doing to their family.

Eighteen months later, Detective Sergeant Scott Andrew Nicholson took his own life.

That was 19 years ago.

Today Mrs Nicholson-Rogers is as determined as she was the day her husband died to bring about change.

“There is complete contempt for anyone who falls. They will kick you to the kerb.”

She is calling for the establishment of a centre of excellence – a place where police officers can go for respite, support and treatment from mental health professionals.

“I know guys in the job right now who are crippled with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” Mrs Nicholson-Rogers said.

“They’re still working, doing their best to stay in the job, but they need help.

“So many have gone through poor management and there is complete contempt for anyone who falls. They will kick you to the kerb.

Mrs Nicholson-Rogers sought help for her husband when she saw the signs he was losing control.

“He became this monster, he couldn’t help it, everything triggered him,” Mrs Nicholson-Rogers recalls.

“I’d find him curled up in the foetal position, crying and crying.
She urged her husband to talk to his boss about his emotional well-being and asked him to contact police welfare.

“He said to me ‘Are you serious? They’ll say go to the pub and have a drink, get over it’.

“He didn’t drink much then but he soon learnt to so he wouldn’t be labelled a ‘sheila’.

“They get this sick sense of humour, that’s the way they get through it. Down at the pub or the bowlo for a debrief then the wives are left to pick up the mess at the end.”

Mrs Nicholson-Rogers and her two children have been to hell and back since her husband’s 1996 suicide.

It was only through counselling that Mrs Nicholson-Rogers, a health promotions officer with NSW Health, realised the true impact on her children.

“The day Scott had the gun down my throat, my seven-year-old son witnessed that. I didn’t know at the time. It’s impacted on them terribly. As they got older they realised the enormity of what had happened. It’s been a really rough road for us.”

Scott spent 13 years in the job, with stints in Camden, Campbelltown and a one-man station in the country.

He died aged 37.

Mrs Nicholson-Rogers reached out for help when things got really bad.

“I contacted police welfare the day after he went off his head about the barbecue, I told them he wasn’t well. He had his gun taken off him [temporarily]. They suggested maybe he should stay home, play housewife more, take more holidays, go for walks at night, debrief with his mates, that’s it.

“He was suffering PTSD and he was told the best thing he could do is exercise.”

Then one night Detective Sergeant Nicholson came home and told his wife he had resigned. Six months later he was dead.

“We had been asking for help for a while, through his bosses. I tried senior management,” she said.

“At one point when he got violent with me I said I’d had enough and I would have him charged if something didn’t change.

“They said ‘Please don’t because we will have to take his gun off him’. I told them he needed help, he was a loose cannon, he will hurt someone.”

Mrs Nicholson-Rogers said suggestions he and other struggling officers were simply not right for the job was a cop-out.

“I hear the same thing today, young guys now being told maybe they’re not right for the job, maybe they should get out. Well no-one is right for a job where day in, day out, they deal with trauma. Layer on layer it consumes them and no-one can take that without the proper support.”

 

Tom Rigby PTSD is a terrible burden for anyone to wear, unfortunately though societies answer is exactly as written in the article ” Go to the pub and have a drink!”

Like · Reply · 1 · January 14, 2015 at 11:01am

 

Alan Hardy If you carnt handle the heat get out of the kitchen

Like · Reply · 1 · January 14, 2015 at 12:23pm

 

Stephen Evelyn Wall Just wondering Alan what job do you do??
These ppl do a wonderful job but doing that job they see and experience terrible things we can’t imagine. All the training in the world doesn’t prepare you for what they have to face.

Like · Reply · 1 · January 14, 2015 at 3:26pm

 

Allison Mc Paul Ftp

Like · Reply · January 14, 2015 at 4:28pm

 

N.S.W Police Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-tJKFgbkWU

Police Integrity Commission investigate alleged cover up of…

youtube.com

Like · Reply · 2 · January 14, 2015 at 5:15pm

 

N.S.W Police Watch You need to do some more research Evelyn, many are not doing a wonderful job at all and then many above them cover for it..

Like · Reply · 3 · January 14, 2015 at 5:15pm

 

N.S.W Police Watch http://books.google.com.au/…/Enemies_of_the_State.html…

Enemies of the State

Tim Priest is a former police detective who was on the front line in the war against crime and drugs in…

books.google.com.au

Like · Reply · 2 · January 14, 2015 at 5:20pm

 

Alan Hardy You are right Evelyn wall ,but if you can not handle your job ,what ever that job is quit and get another job. It’s a job not your life

Like · Reply · 2 · January 14, 2015 at 9:58pm

 

Alan Medhurst Revell Well, well, well…. Looky ere…

Like · Reply · January 15, 2015 at 11:53am

 

N.S.W Police Watch Have edited Jeff, apologies for that.

Like · Reply · January 15, 2015 at 12:50pm

For more read on below

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/…/when-sharans-happy-go…/

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First published on 26 October 2014.

Updated on 28 April 2026 with further information and calculations.

 

 

George Walter SLADE   

NSW Police Training Centre, Redfern – Class # 068

New South Wales Police Force

Regd. #  8591

Rank:  Commenced Training at Redfern Police Academy on Monday 4 February 1957 ( aged 25 years, 4 months, 15 days )( spent 1 month, 28 days at Academy )

Probationary Constable – appointed 1 April 1957 ( aged 25 years, 6 months, 12 days )

Constable – appointed 1 April 1968

Constable 1st Class – appointed ? ? ?

Detective – appointed ? ? ? ( YES )

Senior Constable – appointed 1 April 1968

Sergeant 3rd Class – appointed 5 May 1973

Sergeant 2nd Class – appointed 9 April 1980

Sergeant 1st Class – appointed 31 March 1984

Final Rank:  Detective Sergeant

George does NOT appear in the 1979 Stud Book despite appearing to be a Detective in the 1980s with BCI

Stations:  ? , Liverpool, Fairfield ( 34 Division ) Detectives – late 1970’s – 1980’s, ?

Bureau of Crime Intelligence ( BCI ) – 1980’s – 1982 – retirement

Service:  From 4 February 1957  to  ? ? 1982 = 24+ years Service

Awards:  No Find on Australian Honours system – however:

Commended, with Malcolm K. McGill, for courage and initiative in forcing their way into premises at Croydon, in October 1961, and after a struggle, effecting an arrest of a mentally deranged p3erson who had twice stabbed a man and attempted to rape and kill the man’s wife.  At the time, the man was armed with a knife and starting pistol.

Born:  Sunday  20 September 1931 in Harris Park, NSW

Died:  Wednesday  7 August 1996

Cause:  Illness – Cancer

Age:  64 years, 10 months, 18 days old

Funeral date:  Monday  12 August 1996

Funeral location:  All Saints Church, Victoria Rd, Parramatta, NSW

Grave location:  ?

There was also a K. SLADE # 7236 – Born August 1927 – who was a Sgt 3/c on 1 Jan 1968 at the same time George was a Senior Constable.

There was also R.G. SLADE # 16273 – Born 1954 who was a Constable on 8 April 1975.

It is not known if they were related.

Colin Winchester And The Calabrian Connection

Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 18, 1989
Evan Whitton

THE Winchester inquest will be conducted by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chief Magistrate, Ronald Cahill, assisted by the Deputy Federal Director of Public Prosecutions, John Dee, QC, in the AMP Building, Hobart Place, Canberra.

Winchester, 55, third in seniority in the Federal Police, and said to be nicknamed The Dog because of his dogged tracking of criminals, drove in his unmarked police car to his home in Lawley Street, Deakin, after work on Tuesday, January 10, 1989.

He had a drink with his wife, Gwen, and then drove to Queanbeyan to discuss a proposed hunting trip with his brother Ken. He returned about 9.10pm and parked his car in the driveway of their next-door neighbour’s house. He was wearing a track suit, no socks, and Adidas running shoes.

Winchester turned off the lights and engine, opened the door, and put one foot on the ground. His head framed by the interior light, he was a perfect target. A person stepped forward in the dark to within two or three metres of the car and shot Winchester twice, on either side of the right ear, with a silenced .22 self-loading 10/22 Ruger rifle. Winchester died instantly. He slumped back in the seat, still holding the car keys and with his right foot still on the ground.

Unlike NSW, where an inquest is held into every homicide, an inquest is held in the ACT only if police are not able to lay charges. However, if sufficient evidence emerges, Mr Cahill has the power to turn the inquest into a committal hearing. He can also imprison witnesses who refuse to answer questions.

The first leg of the inquest is scheduled to run for five weeks, until September 22. There will then be a break of two weeks, and the inquest will then run until it is finished. This is currently expected to take between a week and three weeks.

The inquest will examine material relating to various possible scenarios. Dee has stated that the inquest will proceed in three parts: formal matters; evidence on investigations in which Winchester had been involved; and information on people who might have held a grudge against him. Within that framework, the material will be subdivided into separate blocks.

THERE is political and media speculation that the Winchester killing, like the 1977 assassination of Donald Bruce Mackay, may turn on marijuana and the profits to be made there from by elements of organised crime, including what may be termed the Calabrian Mob and corrupt police.

From the following data, and the comparative brevity of the inquest, it may be thought that what is required is not so much an inquest as a full-scale commission of inquiry, with terms of reference and powers as wide as those lately enjoyed by Fitzgerald, QC, in Queensland, to examine the operations of the Calabrians and the possible nexus between them and law enforcement authorities and politicians.

Calabria is a province in the toe of Italy. A Calabrian village, Plati (pop. 3,000), is the headquarters of a secret society, L’Onorata Societa (The Honoured Society) or N’Dranghita. This is not to be confused with other Italian secret societies, the Mafia proper from Sicily, or the Camorra from Naples. Migrants from Calabria began arriving in Australia in 1928. Many went to Griffith, 600 kilometres south-west of Sydney. More Calabrians arrived after the war.

Marijuana, one of many names given to the treated form of the cannabis or Indian hemp plant, became, as a legacy of the Vietnam War, a recreational drug in Australia in the mid-1960s. Cannabis will grow anywhere there is heat and water. Seedlings are planted around August and the crop taken off in January or February.

Justice Woodward reported in 1979 that people born in Plati were involved between 1974 and 1978 in at least 20 cannabis plantations in all mainland States except Victoria. The Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, established in 1981, adopted as its first project, codenamed Alpha, the collection of data on the activities of Italian-oriented cannabis operations.

One cannabis plant was estimated in 1986 to produce $1,100 worth of manufactured marijuana at street level. It has been suggested that Australian marijuana is now being exported, and profits used to finance importation of heroin, cocaine and crack.

It is convenient to examine the Griffith/Calabrian matter in three overlapping sections: Robert Trimbole 1970-87; Joe Verduci 1980-89; Luigi Pochi 1975-89.

THE CHARMED LIFE OF ROBERT TRIMBOLE

IT is said that the Calabrians prefer to co-operate with police rather than shoot them. Gianfranco Tizzoni was an informer for Melbourne police, Customs and narcotics agents. He and another Calabrian informant, Giuseppi (Joe) Verduci, afford useful examples of the ambiguity inherent in the relationship

The informer is assumed to be working for the authorities, but he may be able to arrange matters so that the police are actually working to protect his interests, and to disrupt the activities of his criminal competitors.

Robert Trimbole was a leading member of a Griffith element of N’Dranghita called The Family (La Famiglia). Tizzoni later said Trimbole asked him in 1971 to arrange distribution in Melbourne of unlimited supplies of cannabis from Griffith. Justice Woodward later found that Griffith cannabis growers were protected by local detectives John Ellis, Brian Borthwick and John Robbins. All three were eventually imprisoned for perverting the course of justice.

Bob Bottom discloses in his book Shadow of Shame, sub-titled How the Mafia Got away with the Murder of Donald Mackay, that Mackay, a Griffith businessman and Liberal politician, sent John Maddison, then Minister for Police in the Liberal NSW Government, a confidential dossier on Calabrian involvement in drugs in July 1975. Mackay invented the term “grass castles” to describe ornate homes built in Griffith for former peasant farmers, and said that Trimbole, recently a bankrupt, was thought to provide the Sydney outlet for cannabis.

Maddison took no action, but Sydney police, acting on a tipoff from Mackay, raided an $80-million plantation at Coleambally in November 1985. A number of people were charged and convicted, including Luigi Pochi, of Canberra, who was sentenced to two years in prison in March 1977.

Tizzoni later stated that Trimbole told him to get someone from Melbourne to eliminate Mackay. He said he arranged through a gunsmith, George Joseph, for James Frederick Bazley to execute Mackay. He said Bazley asked for and got no more than $10,000, and that Joseph asked for 10 per cent of the fee, $1,000, for the introduction. Mackay was assassinated in Griffith on July 15, 1977. Bazley, who was eventually convicted of the crime, claims that the killer was actually former NSW detective Fred Krahe.

Bottom records that false rumours to the effect that Mackay had decamped with a woman were floated by two press secretaries in the Wran Government, by a senior Cabinet minister, by a senior police officer, and by Krahe in Griffith. NSW police, led by Sergeant Joe Parrington, were baffled.

Justice Philip Woodward began a royal commission on drug trafficking in August 1977. Observing the Griffith “grass castles” from outside, Woodward, who had fewer powers of entry than the fruit fly inspector, sought an extension of his powers to give him ingress. This was refused by Premier Neville Wran on civil liberties grounds.

Tizzoni later said that Trimbole, who bought into the Mr Asia heroin syndicate in 1979, arranged through Tizzoni, Joseph and Bazley to dispose of drug couriers Douglas and Isabel Wilson, who had informed on syndicate head Terence Clark to Brisbane police and narcotics agents in June 1978. The Wilsons were murdered near Melbourne in April 1979.

Woodward reported to the NSW Government in November 1979 that he was satisfied that Calabrians in Griffith directed a cannabis-growing and distribution network, and that “this organisation was responsible for the disappearance and murder of Donald Mackay”. He recommended that a task force be set up to monitor the activities of Trimbole and his associates. No such task force was set up. Trimbole told The Sydney Morning Herald in November 1979: “That commission can’t touch me or charge me in any way.”

Under subpoena, Trimbole was to appear at the Wilsons’ inquest on August 12, 1980. An inquiry by John Nagle, QC, later found that shortly before that date former Labor parliamentarian Albert Jaime Grassby unsuccessfully sought to have tabled under privilege in the NSW and South Australian parliaments a document falsely suggesting that Mackay’s widow, her son, and her solicitor, had conspired to murder Mackay. Grassby later apologised and agreed to pay$5,000 to cover Mrs Mackay’s court costs to end a defamation action she initiated against Grassby.

Trimbole did not give evidence at the Wilsons’ inquest on the ground that his answers might tend to incriminate him. The coroner recommended an inquiry be held into the Mr Asia syndicate. Trimbole fled the country in May 1981 to avoid giving evidence at Justice Stewart’s inquiry, and apparently worked at organising drug and arms running from bases in France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland.

The Australian Government had been negotiating in desultory fashion with the Irish Government for an extradition treaty since 1977. Bottom notes that on April 1, 1982, the day Trimbole’s stepdaughter took up residence at an exclusive girls’ school in Ireland, some unknown person removed the file on the treaty from an active tray; marked it “no further action required”; and buried it in the Federal Attorney-General’s storage vault.

Justice Stewart recommended to the Federal and NSW governments in August 1982 that Trimbole be found and extradited, but Australia still had no extradition treaty with Ireland when Irish police arrested Trimbole in Dublin in October 1984.

The arrest was tainted, and an Irish court ruled in February 1985 that Trimbole should be released. He retired to Spain and lived there, untroubled by Spanish or Australian authorities, for a further two years before dying, no doubt to the relief of many in Australia, of a heart attack on May 13, 1987. A Catholic priest with a sense of humour, Father John Massore, later conducted a funeral service for Trimbole in Smithfield, Sydney. He took as one of his themes: all human life is as grass.

JOE VERDUCI AND OPERATION SEVILLE

COLIN Winchester, a former miner then 29, joined the ACT police force in 1962. Some of the ACT police were said to act like country cousins of Sydney police, and rather looked up to some of the more flashy, if dubious, detectives therein. It has been asserted that Winchester was corrupt, at least at any earlier period when he is said to have handled bribes relating to a Canberra illegal casino. However, an audit of his financial affairs after his murder revealed nothing untoward.

The ACT Police and Commonwealth Police were merged in 1979 to form the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Channel 10 reporter Christopher Masters says that factional infighting deriving from the original divisions remain, and have impeded the Winchester investigation.

Giuseppi (Joe) Verduci offered in late 1980 to supply AFP Detective Sergeant Brian Lockwood with information on members of the Canberra Italian community allegedly involved in organised crime. Lockwood says that in August 1981 Verduci said he had been approached by Luigi Pochi and another man about growing marijuana on his property at Bungendore, in NSW, just outside the ACT

Bottom notes in Shadow of Shame that Lockwood advised his superior, Winchester, and that Winchester and Bob Blissett, then head of the NSW Bureau of Criminal Intelligence (BCI), agreed to allow the plantation to run as a joint “controlled” operation code-named Operation Seville. The approval of NSW Commissioner of Police, Cecil Abbott, was subsequently obtained, and the operation was placed under the direct control of Winchester and Detective Sergeant * George Slade of the NSW BCI.

The theory was that surveillance would enable police to establish distribution routes and to identify distributors and financiers, and thus, perhaps, get evidence against the Calabrians. Bungendore I was planted in August 1981. Independent NSW MLA John Hatton later asserted that, including Bungendore, there had been 14 drug crops in southern NSW, at Braidwood, Dalton, Michelago and in the Brindabella ranges, of which at least 13 had been grown with the supervision or knowledge of NSW police.

Bungendore I was harvested in February 1982. Some 50 kilograms were sent to Sydney on March 18. The shipment was kept under surveillance and photographed ; no arrests were made. Lockwood said he handed on to Winchester $23,500 given him by Verduci as a result of the operation in March 1982. Winchester paid the money into Consolidated Revenue in September 1982.

At a later court hearing, Verduci declined to answer, on the ground that it might incriminate him, a suggestion that Verduci had paid Winchester large cash amounts that had not gone into Consolidated Revenue.

Robert Trimbole’s old friend, Gianfranco Tizzoni, and two others took the rest of the crop to Victoria. Alerted by NSW police, Victorian police arrested them on March 31 and charged them with possession and supply of marijuana and unlawful possession of firearms.

Tizzoni began to negotiate with Victorian detectives and eventually supplied information that led to the convictions of himself, George Joseph and James Bazley in connection with the murders of Donald Mackay and the Wilsons. So to that extent Operation Seville was a success.

Bungendore II was seeded as part of Operation Seville, of which Winchester was no longer part, in August 1982. Armed assaults were made on the plantation in January 1983 by criminals, possibly at the behest of corrupt NSW police. After these debacles, police destroyed the remainder of the crop in February 1983, and closed down Operation Seville.

AFP Detective Sergeant John Best took over Verduci as an informant from Lockwood in mid-1984. In August, Verduci, apparently without AFP or NSW police authority, became involved in seeding 44,000 hemp plants, worth $50 million on the street, on a plantation at Guyra on the New England tablelands.

Detective Sergeant Bob Small of Armidale police arrested Verduci and five labourers on the Guyra plantation on November 15, 1984. Verduci claimed he had immunity from the AFP. Small checked with Best, who said he had no immunity at Guyra. Best recommended that Verduci be dropped as an AFP informant.

Four of the Guyra labourers pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to 5 1/2 years, with a minimum of three years, on July 1, 1986. A fifth, Carmelo Micalizzi, pleaded not guilty and was tried separately.

At one stage, NSW Crown Law authorities were of a mind to charge Verduci and everyone else, Calabrians and police alike, involved in the Bungendore operation, but this was seen as too much of a problem, and the whole thing was handed over to the National Crime Authority (NCA) for evaluation in 1987.

In July 1987, Winchester was formally warned and interrogated by NCA Chief Inspector Robert McDonald about his role in the Bungendore affair. The NCA concluded that Winchester had done nothing illegal.

The NCA used the trial of Micalizzi in November 1987 as a sort of dry run to see how Verduci might perform as an indemnified Crown witness against Calabrians allegedly involved in the Bungendore operation. Micalizzi was found guilty and got 5 1/2 years with a minimum of three. Thus encouraged, the NCA charged 11 people, including Luigi Pochi, in April 1988 in connection with the Bungendore matters.

The Bungendore committal hearing was to start in Queanbeyan on February 6, 1989. Winchester might have been a witness, but not as important a witness as Verduci, who did not appear to feel that he was at any sort of risk ; he had declined to continue to accept police protection.

When Winchester was executed on January 10,Lockwood, now a Canberra service station proprietor,was given police protection. AFP Commander Lloyd Worthy, a former member of the ACT Police, was in charge of the investigation.

More than 25 police, led by Chief Superintendent Richard Ninness, raided the flat of a former Treasury official, said to have held a grudge against Winchester, on January 18, but Worthy said there was no suggestion the man would be charged in connection with the murder.

Verduci refused to give evidence in the Bungendore case, and most of the charges were withdrawn on March 1 ; NSW Attorney-General John Dowd dropped the remaining charges against the Calabrians in May.

THE CHARMED LIFE OF LUIGI POCHI

AS noted, Luigi Pochi was sentenced to two years in prison in March 1977 in connection with a cannabis plantation at Coleambally. Pochi, who had come to Australia in 1959, was eligible for deportation because he had not, through an administrative bungle, become an Australian citizen.

Michael Mackellar, Federal Immigration Minister, ordered Pochi’s deportation in 1978 on the ground of his conviction and alleged involvement in “commerce in marijuana”. Pochi appealed.

Mr Justice Gerard Brennan, president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), recommended in 1979 that Pochi not be deported. He said there were ample grounds for suspecting that Pochi was involved in marijuana, but the evidence did not prove it ; such conduct “must be proved,not merely suspected”

Justice Woodward found in November 1979 that he was satisfied that Pochi was a Canberra principal of the Griffith cannabis organisation ; that the growing of cannabis was principally supervised from Griffith by Pochi’s brother-in-law and business partner, Antonio Sergi ; and that distribution and marketing was supervised principally by Pochi’s other business partner, Robert Trimbole. Sergi has never been charged with any crime.

The Federal Court upheld Justice Brennan’s recommendation against deporting Pochi in July 1980. The Government appealed to the High Court. The High Court refused leave to appeal in August 1981, a time when Pochi was later alleged to have been involved in Joe Verduci’s Bungendore plantation.

Pochi had received support from elements of the Labor Party. It has been reported that in 1981 Verduci was said to have gone to the home of a Labor Party figure to warn him that the party should not be seen to be supporting Pochi and that he even produced marijuana from the Bungendore crop “to show the ALP man that Pochi was involved in drugs”.

Ian MacPhee, then Liberal Immigration Minister, who might have had access to current intelligence not available to others, overruled the AAT recommendations on February 23, 1982, and had a deportation order served on Pochi giving him 72 hours to leave the country.

Pochi issued a statement asserting: “I have always denied and still deny that I had any association with any illegal criminal organisation.” He obtained a temporary High Court injunction to stay his departure.

The High Court unanimously upheld the validity of the Pochi order on October 22, 1982, but Justice Lionel Murphy added it would be a misuse of power to deport Pochi in circumstances that might break up his family.

Three days later, the then Immigration Minister John Hodges, who had replaced MacPhee in May, revoked the order “on strong humanitarian and compassionate grounds”. On October 27, 1982, the Taxation Commissioner’s annual report showed that Pochi, 43, had been fined $16,000 for underestimating his income by $57,671 in the period between 1973-74 and 1975-76.

Pochi was among 11 charged in April 1988 in connection with the Bungendore plantation. He and three associates were members of the Belconnen branch of the Australian Labor Party at the time of the Winchester murder on January 10, 1989. It was later reported that police had sought the records of a branch meeting held on that night.

As noted, the case against Pochi and others collapsed in March 1989 when Verduci refused to give evidence.

Graham Mark HILDER 

Late of Wentworthville, NSW

New South Wales Police Force

Senior Constable

Regd. # 28153

Stationed at Granville Police Station ( 18 Division )

Awards: ?

Served:  From  ?  to  ?

Born  Friday  3 March 1961

Died Monday 9 December 1996

35 years, 9 months, 6 days

Suicide

Funeral date:  ?

Funeral location:  ?

Memorial Touch Stone plaque:

FURTHER INFORMATION IS REQUIRED ABOUT THIS PERSON

Death notice published in Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 12 DEC 1996

Memorial plaque location:  [codepeople-post-map]

Robert Wayne TAIT

aka  Bob

New South Wales Police Force

Joined via the NSW Police Cadets on 24 February 1964

NSW Police Academy – Redfern – Class 106

Cadet # 1927

Regd. #  11786

Rank: NSW Police Cadet – commenced 24 February 1964 ( aged 16 years, 11 months, 5 days )

Probationary Constable – appointed 19 March 1966 ( aged 19 years, 0 months, 0 days )

Constable – appointed 19 March 1967

Constable 1st Class – appointed ? ? ?

Senior Constable – appointed 19 March 1975

Sergeant 3rd Class – appointed 27 March 1982

Inspector – death

Stations:  ?, Northern District ( 1966+ ), ?, Narrabri – Patrol Commander

Awards:  National Medal – granted 23 October 1981 ( SenCon )

1st Clasp to the National Medal – granted 28 May 1992 ( SenSgt )

Service:  From  24 February 1964  to  29 March 1996 = 32 years, 1 month, 5 days Service

Age at Leaving:  49 years, 0 months, 10 days

Time in Retirement:  0

Born:  Wednesday 19 March 1947

Died:  Friday 29 March 1996

Age:  49 years, 0 months, 10 days

Cause: Illness – Depression – Suicide – Service revolver – In a Police Station

Event location: Narrabri Police Station, NSW

Funeral: Narrabri Lawn Cemetery, Gunnedah Rd ( Kamilaroi Hwy ), Narrabri, NSW

Grave:  Portion A2, Row Q

Cremated: ?

Robert is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance * BUT SHOULD BE

In 1996 Inspector Bob Tait was the officer in charge of police at Narrabri. On the morning of Friday 29 March of that year he ended his own life at the Narrabri Police Station.

The Northern Daily Leader of 30 March, 1996 reported the death.

Stunned colleagues and the Narrabri community are this morning trying to come to terms with why such a respected policeman would kill himself. Inspector Robert Tait, 49, went to work yesterday morning, where he had been serving as the patrol commander, walked into an unoccupied office, took his service revolver and ended his life.

The inspector joined the New South Wales Police Force on 24 February, 1964 as a cadet, and was sworn in on 19 March, 1966. At the time of his death he was stationed at Narrabri, where he was the patrol commander.