Australian Protective Service whistleblower Gary Lee-Rogers may have died at the hands of four people named in court yesterday by a former NSW police detective who backed his claims of corruption in the service.
In evidence yesterday at a coronial inquest into Mr Lee-Rogers' death at Queanbeyan in 2002, retired detective senior constable Deborah Lee Locke identified four individuals, whose names cannot be published and were not read aloud under court order by coroner Jacqueline Milledge.
Ms Locke also revealed evidence, compiled from internal APS documents, which substantiated Mr Lee-Rogers' whistleblower claims of systemic mismanagement within the APS including the misuse of company credit cards by employees.
She accused the APS of corruption and collusion, tendering to the court the documents, including one from March 2000, which revealed that more than 60 firearms, 30 handcuffs and bomb-suit equipment had mysteriously vanished from the organisation. The audit report showed that 47 revolvers were gone, as well as two rifles, six shotguns, 18 batons, computers and mobile phones.
The missing weapons, as well as claims of mismanagement and workplace harassment, were among allegations Mr Lee- Rogers, a senior officer, was planning to use to expose what he called the "web of lies, corruption and collusion" that existed within his workplace.
Ms Locke said she believed Mr Lee- Rogers had died after months of bullying to shut him up by members of an "old boys club" that existed within the APS and possibly the Australian Federal Police. She did not believe his death was murder but rather manslaughter by several individuals who wanted to "send him a message".
Ms Locke, a 12-year NSW Police Force veteran who worked as a detective with the Kings Cross undercover drug squad and the Fraud section, said that from the medical evidence available she believed he was either punched in the face or smothered with a pillow.
