capital.
Indeed, O’Connell decided he would not burden the new Commissioner with allegations of corruption and felt Lewis had a right to put his own house ‘in order’. O’Connell later said: ‘I was not telling lies. I was supporting the new regime.’
Before he returned to London, Lewis and Newbery presented O’Connell with ‘albums’ and a ‘print’ of an old etching of Scotland Yard as souvenirs of his return trip to Brisbane.
Old friends checked in. Eric Pratt telephoned for a natter about the Lucas Inquiry. Then on Wednesday 9 March, Lewis headed out to Eagle Farm airport to meet Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, in the city as a part of their 1977 Silver Jubilee tour. The Commissioner escorted the famous couple to City Hall and then on to Government House. Late that afternoon he was formally ‘presented’ to the Queen and Prince. The Royals were gone by Friday.
On that same day, Lewis met with Tony Murphy ‘re unsolved murders’.
The following Monday – 14 March 1977 – Commander O’Connell finally issued his sanitised report on corruption to the Queensland Government. It concluded: ‘No purpose would be served in pursuing our investigation any further. During the course of our enquiries we did not uncover sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution.’
The report, ring-bound and book-ended in thick, creamy cardboard, was a total of five pages long. It was filed and never made public.
Slacks
Lorelle Saunders was a police officer on the up and up. Not only was she Queensland’s first female detective, but she had been excited by former Commissioner Ray Whitrod’s reform agenda, particularly in relation to women in the police force.
She had only been in the force a little less than five years by the time Whitrod resigned and Terry Lewis took over the top job. When she had first joined, one of her first postings in late November, 1972, was to the JAB, then run by Senior Sergeant Terry Lewis. She spent only a few months there before being moved over to the Gabba CIB, then the City Police shortly after.
By April 1973 she was back in plain clothes at the JAB. While there, she said that a major disagreement occurred between Lewis and Tony Murphy towards the end of the year. The argument was over the location for the JAB’s annual Christmas party. Lewis had arranged for it to be held at the old National Hotel, epicentre of the inquiry into police misconduct in 1963. Murphy indicated they should never set foot in the hotel, owned by the Roberts brothers.
Curious, Saunders had started asking around about the National, and was told the story of Bischof, the Rat Pack – supposedly Lewis, Murphy and Glen Hallahan – and police corruption during the era.
Lewis would later deny that the argument with Murphy ever took place.
Later, Saunders was transferred to Whitrod’s new Education Department Liaison Unit (EDLU) – a body established in direct opposition to Lewis’s JAB. The EDLU would get tougher on juvenile offenders. In accepting the transfer, Saunders said Lewis went ‘crazy’ and accused her of disloyalty. If true, Lewis’s perception that you were ‘pro-Whitrod’ would be enough to seed an immovable enmity. From that moment, Saunders’ name would have been blacklisted.
Saunders later had a stint at the Inala suburban station west of the city before she was brought back in to the Metropolitan CIB, South Brisbane Area Office, in January 1977. By this stage, following his spectacular ascent, Lewis had been Commissioner for just a few weeks. One of the first notations in his Commissioner’s diary, however, would relate to Saunders. Lewis recorded: ‘Mr Riley mentioned re P/W Saunders and [P/W Janet] Makepeace soliciting signatures for petition.’
The petition that had become diary-worthy for Lewis was in fact in relation to overturning police regulations and allowing female officers to wear slacks on duty. Saunders contacted virtually every female Queensland officer seeking
Indeed, O’Connell decided he would not burden the new Commissioner with allegations of corruption and felt Lewis had a right to put his own house ‘in order’. O’Connell later said: ‘I was not telling lies. I was supporting the new regime.’
Before he returned to London, Lewis and Newbery presented O’Connell with ‘albums’ and a ‘print’ of an old etching of Scotland Yard as souvenirs of his return trip to Brisbane.
Old friends checked in. Eric Pratt telephoned for a natter about the Lucas Inquiry. Then on Wednesday 9 March, Lewis headed out to Eagle Farm airport to meet Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, in the city as a part of their 1977 Silver Jubilee tour. The Commissioner escorted the famous couple to City Hall and then on to Government House. Late that afternoon he was formally ‘presented’ to the Queen and Prince. The Royals were gone by Friday.
On that same day, Lewis met with Tony Murphy ‘re unsolved murders’.
The following Monday – 14 March 1977 – Commander O’Connell finally issued his sanitised report on corruption to the Queensland Government. It concluded: ‘No purpose would be served in pursuing our investigation any further. During the course of our enquiries we did not uncover sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution.’
The report, ring-bound and book-ended in thick, creamy cardboard, was a total of five pages long. It was filed and never made public.
Slacks
Lorelle Saunders was a police officer on the up and up. Not only was she Queensland’s first female detective, but she had been excited by former Commissioner Ray Whitrod’s reform agenda, particularly in relation to women in the police force.
She had only been in the force a little less than five years by the time Whitrod resigned and Terry Lewis took over the top job. When she had first joined, one of her first postings in late November, 1972, was to the JAB, then run by Senior Sergeant Terry Lewis. She spent only a few months there before being moved over to the Gabba CIB, then the City Police shortly after.
By April 1973 she was back in plain clothes at the JAB. While there, she said that a major disagreement occurred between Lewis and Tony Murphy towards the end of the year. The argument was over the location for the JAB’s annual Christmas party. Lewis had arranged for it to be held at the old National Hotel, epicentre of the inquiry into police misconduct in 1963. Murphy indicated they should never set foot in the hotel, owned by the Roberts brothers.
Curious, Saunders had started asking around about the National, and was told the story of Bischof, the Rat Pack – supposedly Lewis, Murphy and Glen Hallahan – and police corruption during the era.
Lewis would later deny that the argument with Murphy ever took place.
Later, Saunders was transferred to Whitrod’s new Education Department Liaison Unit (EDLU) – a body established in direct opposition to Lewis’s JAB. The EDLU would get tougher on juvenile offenders. In accepting the transfer, Saunders said Lewis went ‘crazy’ and accused her of disloyalty. If true, Lewis’s perception that you were ‘pro-Whitrod’ would be enough to seed an immovable enmity. From that moment, Saunders’ name would have been blacklisted.
Saunders later had a stint at the Inala suburban station west of the city before she was brought back in to the Metropolitan CIB, South Brisbane Area Office, in January 1977. By this stage, following his spectacular ascent, Lewis had been Commissioner for just a few weeks. One of the first notations in his Commissioner’s diary, however, would relate to Saunders. Lewis recorded: ‘Mr Riley mentioned re P/W Saunders and [P/W Janet] Makepeace soliciting signatures for petition.’
The petition that had become diary-worthy for Lewis was in fact in relation to overturning police regulations and allowing female officers to wear slacks on duty. Saunders contacted virtually every female Queensland officer seeking
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