NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn says she was suspicious about fellow officer Nick Kaldas when he was targeted in a controversial police bugging operation.
In extraordinary testimony to a NSW parliamentary inquiry on Friday, Mr Kaldas, who is also a deputy commissioner, slammed the conduct of Operation Mascot, which was a massive internal anti-corruption surveillance exercise carried out in 2000.
He said Mascot had been done without basis and had brought enormous damage to him and other officers, including causing one suicide.
But Ms Burn, a member of the Special Crime and Internal Affairs unit in 2000 and the team leader of Operation Mascot, maintained there were suspicions about Mr Kaldas.
"Yes, there was suspicion. I had suspicion," Ms Burn told the Upper House committee, but she was hesitant to discuss her suspicions publicly.
She agreed with Greens MLC and committee member Adam Shoebridge that one might be related to a 25-year-old complaint about an armed robbery case Mr Kaldas had mentioned and rejected in his testimony.
Mr Kaldas was among more than 100 officers named on phone-tap warrants allegedly obtained by officers using false or misleading evidence to judges during Operation Mascot.
The Mascot investigation found nothing but harmed his life, his family and his career, he said.
His mobile phone and his office as head of the homicide squad were bugged, as was the home of his ex-wife and children, and he was passed over for promotions.
Mr Kaldas also launched a scathing attack on Operation Prospect, the NSW Ombudsman's two-year-old investigation of Operation Mascot.
Mr Kaldas said the investigation by Ombudsman Bruce Barbour had sided with the officers being complained about and targeted him and others.
After making complaints about the bugging, he was called down for a "friendly" hearing with the ombudsman last September, but instead faced a day-long attack on his credibility.
A highly regarded investigator, Mr Kaldas has advised coalition police forces in Iraq and was headhunted by the United Nations to investigate the 2005 assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri.
"I received many threats from Hezbollah and other proxy groups," Mr Kaldas said.
"I fear no man."
But Mr Kaldas said he been "denigrated, humiliated and had my every action and thought so unreasonably maligned" by the ombudsman's investigation.
"(He) has now summoned me again to appear before him and I hold fears of his intentions towards me," he said.
Ms Burn denied any knowledge of improper activities in Operation Mascot.
The inquiry has heard warrants to tap phones were acquired illegally and without proper evidence, but Ms Burn said she was not responsible for preparing the affidavits, which was the role of junior officers and solicitors.
Two journalists have also fronted the inquiry, and spoke about the impact of being targeted by the ombudsman for their reporting.
Veteran reporter Neil Mercer said his phone records had been searched, and the ombudsman was focused on finding whistleblowers rather than any wrongdoing during Operation Mascot.
The Daily Telegraph crime editor Mark Morri said he was asked by the ombudsman to give evidence about confidential sources but refused.
Share
