Commission of Inquiry reconvenes

The Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct will reconvene in coming weeks with amended terms of reference, new procedures and a new reporting date of 3 March 2006.

The Inquiry was established in February 2004 to investigate the manner in which allegations of sexual assault by police staff or associates have been investigated and handled by police over the past 26 years.

Since that time, however, police investigations and criminal prosecutions currently before the courts have meant such cases are now excluded from all aspects of the Commission’s ongoing proceedings.

This exclusion will enable the Commission to continue with the Inquiry without prejudicing such cases.

The Order in Council from the Governor-General, dated 2 May 2005, now directs that the Commission:

• conduct its preliminary hearings in private
• not make complainants nor respondents names or particulars public
• limit its public hearings
• to make, in its report and in any interim report, findings of a more general nature than originally envisaged (when the Commission was first appointed in February 2004).

The Order in Council also confirmed Dame Margaret Bazley as the sole Commissioner. The previous Chair of the Commission, Justice Bruce Robertson has been appointed to the Court of Appeal.

The Commission is currently reviewing how it will operate under these revised directions and will make public its revised processes in the near future.