Officer's `cover-up' in transsexual privacy case: [2 All-round First Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Feb 2008: 5.
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Abstract
Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court heard [Garrick Jacobson] was at Surry Hills police station for allegedly stealing beer when theconstables told him: "You're r..ting a bloke".
"He said, `Don't tell the supervisors what we did'," he told the court. "I said, `Mate, they'll find out anyway."
He denied discussing details of the [Brigitte Fell] case with another officer, except to say "thank God I was in the back the whole time, otherwise I would be sitting over there", gesturing to constables Stacey and [Brendan Ritson].
A POLICEMAN allegedly tried to get a colleague to cover up for him after he called up confidential files and told a man in custody for stealing beer that his girlfriend was a transsexual.
The case, which is about privacy, is expected to become even more public today, when Garrick Jacobson, who allegedly bashed Brigitte Fell after being told she had been a he, gives evidence.
Constables Tyrone Stacey and Brendan Ritson are charged with breaching Ms Fell's privacy by using the NSW police computer system on September 24, 2006, to unlawfully disclose information. They have pleaded not guilty.
Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court heard Jacobson was at Surry Hills police station for allegedly stealing beer when the constables told him: "You're r..ting a bloke".
Constable Steve De Jong yesterday told the court that Constable Stacey had asked him to cover up for the pair.
"He said, `Don't tell the supervisors what we did'," he told the court. "I said, `Mate, they'll find out anyway."
He said Constable Stacey had earlier told him: "Mate, he's going out with Brigitte Fell, you know, the trannie.
"Ritto and I told him he was going out with a trannie."
Magistrate Glen Bartley ordered that Jacobson be brought from Parklea prison to the court to appear at 10am.
Despite Ms Fell, who had sex reassignment surgery 12 years ago, telling the court she had had one of the best sex changes anyone had ever seen, Constable De Jong said it was common knowledge at Surry Hills station that she was a transsexual and was a familiar face around the Oxford Street area.
He said it only took a few minutes with Ms Fell, "as long as it takes to look at someone's hands and feet", to realise she had once been a male.
Constable De Jong, the arresting officer in the Jacobson case, said he had not seen the alleged breach of privacy as he was at theback of the station.
He denied discussing details of the Fell case with another officer, except to say "thank God I was in the back the whole time, otherwise I would be sitting over there", gesturing to constables Stacey and Ritson.
Richard Ashman, who was in the charge room at the time, said the atmosphere had been a pleasant, jokey one, with Jacobson exchanging ribald jokes about his girlfriend being a male.
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