Petrelis death not related to identity information leak: CCC

The Corruption and Crime Commission has found the 1995 death of protected witness Andrew Petrelis was not linked to the unauthorised access of his covert identity details on the police computer system.

The full text of a CCC announcement is pasted below

A Corruption and Crime Commission consideration of four reports surrounding the 1995 death of Andrew Petrelis while under witness protection has found no evidence that the unauthorised access of his covert identity details on the police computer system were linked to his death.

The Commission's Director of Operations, Nick Anticich, said the Commission's opinion is included with the report completed in 2001 by the CCC's predecessor, the Anti- Corruption Commission, that was made public for the first time after it was tabled in Parliament today.

Mr Petrelis was found dead in Queensland while he was a participant in the Western Australia Police witness protection program prior to his scheduled giving of evidence in a drug case in Western Australia.

Mr Anticich said the A-CC report detailed evidence that former WA police officer, Sergeant Murray Shadgett, accessed covert identity details of Mr Petrelis on the police computer while he was under witness protection and provided them to people outside the police.

"The A-CC forwarded evidence regarding Shadgett's conduct to the Director of Public Prosecutions who did not believe a prosecution should be instituted on the evidence available. Shadgett later retired from the police.

"The report also said that another police officer, the late Constable Kevin Davy, accessed details of the assumed identity of Mr Petrelis on the police computer. He was subsequently dismissed from the police over another matter," Mr Anticich said.

The Corruption and Crime Commission considered three other inquiries into the death of Mr Petrelis and the witness protection program:

• The review of the Western Australia Police witness protection program by the Hon. Len Roberts-Smith QC tabled in 2000. That report recommended that the Queensland Coroner conduct an inquest into the death of Mr Petrelis.
• The Queensland coronial inquiry, published in November 2006, that found Mr Petrelis had died of opiate toxicity and that there was no evidence that the cause of death was other than self-administration.
• The Royal Commission Into Whether There Has Been Corrupt or Criminal Conduct By Any Western Australian Police Officer which found that there was no evidence that Davy and Shadgett's unlawful access of details of Mr Petrelis on the police computer were motivated by a desire to locate him. Rather they were intended to determine whether a buyer of drugs was an undercover police officer.

Mr Anticich said the A-CC report had only been released now as the CCC's consideration of the various reports on the matter could only commence after the report of the Queensland coroner had been made public.

The Commission determined that the release of the A-CC's report was in the public interest.