Years of animosity between two top-ranking NSW police have boiled over, with Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas telling an inquiry he was targeted in an anti-corruption bugging operation on the suggestion of fellow officer Catherine Burn.
Mr Kaldas publicly contradicted evidence Deputy Commissioner Burn gave to a NSW Upper House committee that she could not recall who suggested his name be included on warrants for phone taps in a police internal affairs operation in 2000.
The inquiry has heard that during Operation Mascot, Mr Kaldas was named on 80 warrants, his mobile phone, office and the house of his ex-wife were bugged and he was targeted by a corrupt officer, M5, who was acting as an informant.
Mr Kaldas on Tuesday presented a partial transcript he said showed Ms Burn suggesting his name to M5 during a debriefing as part of the 15-year-old investigation.
"Notwithstanding the evidence that Catherine Burn gave to the committee this morning, the person that introduced my name to M5 was in fact Catherine Burn," he said.
The transcript did not show the names of the officers.
Mr Kaldas also rounded on Ms Burn's testimony that she had reasonable suspicion when he was targeted for bugging.
Ms Burn said she acted on complaints about planted and falsified evidence and theft of money relating to incidents in the early 1990s, as well as suspected leaking of information.
She denied having any vendetta or animosity towards Mr Kaldas.
Mr Kaldas dismissed the claims as "preposterous", saying no complaints had been made about him.
"What Catherine Burn has outlined are allegations against other police officers which she says somehow give credibility to allegations against me," he said.
Mr Kaldas has testified previously before the inquiry that he was targeted by senior internal affairs officers, with who he had a long-running and well-known dispute.
He said M5 admitted as much in a claim for an injury pension, where M5 stated he had been "used to even up personal scores".
Mr Kaldas, who along with Ms Burn is a contender to be the next NSW police commissioner, criticised a NSW Ombudsman's long-running investigation of Operation Mascot, another Operation Florida and subsequent internal inquiries into the matter.
Mr Kaldas says the ombudsman's inquiry, Operation Prospect, has targeted whistleblowers rather than victims in the Mascot scandal.
The ombudsman had not asked him, during a secret interview, about warrants allegedly obtained from magistrates with false information, he said.
"In five days of hearings here you've already uncovered the basic truth of the misconduct that occurred in Mascot/Florida. The ombudsman has been going for two years and says he's not yet ready to draw any conclusions."
Former police and members of the public crowded into the gallery to watch Mr Kaldas give his evidence and applauded as he entered and left.
Mr Kaldas said he forgave Ms Burn and the investigators on Mascot/Florida because "I believe in Christian forgiveness".
He said he could work with Ms Burn in the future.
"All we have ever wanted is an admission that it was wrong and an apology," he said.
The inquiry is due to report its findings on February 25.
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