A former senior police officer will be called back to an inquiry into potential gay hate killings after multiple witnesses contradicted his earlier evidence.
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The broad-ranging inquiry is probing unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTQI people in NSW between 1970 and 2010, including whether possible bias on the part of police impacted investigations.
Former deputy NSW Police commissioner Mick Willing has been called to re-appear before the inquiry on Friday.
He is expected to be grilled over a controversial ABC interview in 2015 by former detective chief inspector Pamela Young.
Ms Young was on a police task force which re-investigated the 1988 death of gay American mathematician Scott Johnson, which officers initially ruled a suicide.
Family pressure, a series of inquiries and a $2 million reward sparked renewed interest in the case and in 2020, Scott Phillip White, 52, was arrested.
He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and in June 2023 was sentenced to a maximum of nine years in jail.
During the interview eight years earlier, Ms Young accused the police minister of "kowtowing" to Mr Johnson's family by establishing a fresh investigation while claiming the case had been favoured over others.
Mr Willing previously told the inquiry Ms Young was not authorised to give the interview and he had not known about it.
In his submission, he said Ms Young lost objectivity which caused her to "devise and execute a strategy to publicly air her grievances".
He added Ms Young kept the interview secret from senior officers, including himself.
But earlier this week the inquiry heard evidence from Ms Young and her former colleague Penelope Brown that contradicted Mr Willing's version of events.
Both women said Mr Willing knew about the interview and what Ms Young was planning to say.
In a diary note made at the time, Detective Sergeant Brown detailed a call Ms Young had with Mr Willing on loudspeaker in which she told him about the ABC appearance.
The note said Ms Young added that she would say if asked that she felt the then-police minister kowtowed to the request of the Johnson family.
Ms Young told the inquiry she undertook the interview to speak about the thoroughness of the police investigation.
"(Mr Willing) was open-minded to it, he said, 'I like that idea, let's see what we can make of that'," she said.
Australian Associated Press
