Second ex-detective tells of corruption By Colleen Egan 26feb03 A SECOND former detective has told of widespread corruption in the West Australian Police Service, admitting that he and his colleagues regularly broke the law and lied to the courts.
The startling evidence of police royal commission supergrass L5 on Monday was corroborated by L1, another indemnified witness, who detailed endemic graft.
L1, a detective of four years until he resigned under a corruption cloud in 1992, said pilfering stolen property and "verballing" suspects was standard practice.
L1 mirrored the disturbing evidence of L5 relating to the deliberate misleading of the justice process, agreeing that manufacturing "confessions" and lying in court were common practice.
Confessional statements were completely made up months after the suspect was interviewed, and detectives then rehearsed dishonest evidence before entering court.
"Court is a stressful thing for police because you're perpetually afraid of getting caught out telling lies," he said, adding that he was never caught out.
L1 said he was taught the "three Fs" of search and seizure procedure: "Find it, filch it and don't forget your mates."
He said a senior detective, who was his boss at one stage, told him a previous stint in the drug squad had been lucrative.
"He told me that any given time at the drug squad he had $50,000 buried," L1 said.
He told of an episode in a suburban CIB office when he witnessed two detectives dishing out a beating to a suspect.
Other police in the office were holding up Olympic-style scorecards, he said, as their colleagues bashed the young man.
"It used to amaze me how these guys could inflict that sort of pain on people without leaving marks," he said.
Earlier yesterday, L5 completed his testimony by telling the commission his police journals were almost entirely fiction, and that he was tipped off by a senior officer when the internal affairs unit investigated him.
L5 said that investigation was unwarranted. However, he faced little scrutiny for the real corruption he practised for more than a decade.
L1, who had already given evidence limited to a particular case at the commission, said the graft was kept secret from the uniformed police but every plain-clothes officer had seen the corruption, even if he had not participated in it.
L5 and L1 will both be recalled for cross-examination when the police they have accused have been notified of the allegations. The inquiry continues.
