WOOD ROYAL COMMISSION
I nearly threw up every time I walked through these doors to go into the Royal Commission. I went into labour during my sixth day in the witness box. Hayes was born at 26 weeks weighing only 1 kilo and suffers brain damage and autism. He goes to a day program; he even failed the ability of being able to attend a sheltered workshop. There were many casualties of the Wood Royal Commission.
Herald Sun
Mr John Hatton Independent MP
John is a hero in Australia’s history. He formed a small group and took on NSW corruption. The media was the greatest safety we had at the time. What John achieved and the years of hard work behind it will never be fully understood. Not many men come along like John.
(Image: The Telegraph)
When noise for a Royal Commission started to take on speed, the police line was that there was only one bad apple – me, as depicted in this newspaper cartoon from the time. I was the only serving member of the NSW Police force who had come forward with current allegations of corruption. Every other officer MP. John Hatton and I approached for support in starting an enquiry had the same answer, “I have a wife and mortgage, I value my job, but even more my life”. We had a number of police who wasted valuable time and when it came to putting their signature on a statutory declaration found many excuses. We went to parliament with only a handful of statutory declarations from myself about the different squads I had worked at during my time in the cops which covered current corruption. John did a miracle, he had one female recovering alcoholic detective – however the thing they couldn’t argue was that everything I reported was the truth. My claims of wide spread corruption were supported by earlier accounts also from strong men like Arthur King.
Many a good time has been had around the El-Alamein Memorial Fountain which is located out the front of Kings Cross Police Station. (Also some bad times).
Trevor Haken
He was never a whistleblower. He was a drunk detective up the cross who was the first to be approached by Royal Commission Investigators and he quickly rolled over. He then set up his mates and got an amnesty for this. After years of hiding in New Zealand he has admitted it would have been easier to have done his time in jail. He set up Chook Fowler and others by doing business as usual with cameras that were installed in cars. This was the first time Police investigators that were investigating corrupt police used these techniques. Some of the strategies used by the Wood Royal Commission were adopted by Police Forces all over the world.
Who could forget the footage of money changing hands in cars or ‘Chooky’ slipping on a milk shake?
Roger at the funeral of Graham ‘Chook’ fowler (Damien Murphy) 22 May 2013
Billy Bayeh was sentence to a 15-year stretch behind bars. He was jailed for dealing heroin and cocaine from the once-notorious Cosmopolitan Cafe in Kings Cross. Bayeh was arrested after being handcuffed in dramatic scenes shortly after giving evidence at the Wood royal commission in 1996. Film from a camera located in a ceiling was shown at the commission of Billy dealing drugs. Billy and his brother Louis Bayeh, who I knew from my days as a Parramatta Detective were active boys in Kings Cross after Lenny McPherson lost his crown.
Gangster – Lenny McPherson
Lenny rotted and died in jail, just as Roger will.
GLEN McNamara AND I OUTSIDE KINGS CROSS POLICE STATION in 2010. (Steven Siewert)
When I supported Glen in his media launch for his book ‘Dirty Work’, Glen had worked at the Cross also and had spoken out about Police taking bribes from pedophiles. His wife Cheryl had also gone into spontaneous miscarriage as I had, due to the stress and fear encountered from police. I was supporting a fellow Whistle-blower who had stepped out, spoken up and paid the price. Glen wrote, ‘Dirty Work’ in 2010. We went for pizza in the Cross after this photo was taken and swapped war stories. I had no idea that just a few years later I would be traveling into Sydney each day to watch Glen and Roger in the box for the murder of Jamie Gao.
The Telegraph 13/10/01
Sunday Telegraph
Morgan Ogg wrote this article following the Wood Royal Commission. Little did anyone know; this humble gentleman was a part of the support team for Independent MP John Hatton that secretly fought for years to get the truth out about Corruption in the New South Wales Police Force. He was such a wonderful man.
Underbelly: The Golden Mile
TV WEEK MAGAZINE JUN 26, 2010
UNDERBELLY’S DEBORAH LOCKE
Deborah Locke is the former NSW police officer whose allegations of misconduct in the force helped to spark the Wood Royal Commission – a pivotal part of the Underbelly: The Golden Mile story. WHO meets the courageous 46-year-old and discovers what she believes is the lasting legacy of her decision to reveal the truth about her corrupt colleagues (“As a whistleblower, I was trying to do the right thing, and then my son ends up brain-damaged”) and tells that many years later she still fears possible retribution.
Lelia McKinnon’s interview with Deb on A Current Affair,
“Detective Senior Constable Deborah Locke, characterised as “Deb” in Underbelly, blew the whistle on the webs of illicit money-making and money-taking operated by dozens of NSW detectives. She tells Leila Mackinnon of those dangerous times in her life… and if she really went skinny-dipping with five police colleagues, as portrayed in Underbelly”
31 May, 2010
Interview on 2UE Breakfast with John & Sandy
Interview with Mike E & Carmela MIX 106.5
Ant & Becks from Mix 106.5
Underbelly is disgraceful, says former judge
CRIME shows such as Underbelly are disgraceful glamorisations of crime and there is nothing admirable about events depicted in them, says the man who led a royal commission on NSW police corruption.
The former Supreme Court judge James Wood said the Channel Nine series and programs like it tended to make guns and violence acceptable and glamorised characters based on people who were nothing but ”hoodlums and thugs”
TIM DICK
April 14, 2010 Sydney Morning Herald
WOMEN OF UNDERBELLY
Women on the edge … Cheree Cassidy plays Constable Debbie Webb, Emma Booth plays Kim Hollingsworth, Sigrid Thornton plays Gerry Lloyd, Natalie Bassngthwaighte as Maria Haken,Jessica Tovey as Constable Wendy Jones. Source: The Daily Telegraph
Detective Constable Debbie Webb (Locke)
Being a cop is all Debbie Webb (played by Cheree Cassidy) ever wanted to do. Young, blonde and pretty, she was determined to succeed in life where her alcoholic parents had failed.
When she realises the police officers around her are corrupt and subsequently blows the whistle on them, all hell breaks loose.”
Reading her book, I welled up with tears numerous times,” says Cassidy, 27, who met Webb, a consultant on Underbelly 3.
“It’s amazing that she came out the other side. I have a lot of respect for her. She is a woman remarkable courage. If you didn’t love her character and respect her, then you couldn’t play it – but I do.
“Battling alcoholism, depression and what she went through and survived is amazing.”
Played by Cheree Cassidy
Cassidy was broke, working as a cashier at a cinema chain before she won the role of Webb and has been lauded for her acting talent. A dancer whose dream of becoming an actress came later than most, she studied at Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts. Her Underbelly role made her a household TV name.
Dangerous days in the Cross
It was an extraordinary period in Sydney’s history, as we will soon be reminded by Underbelly 3. One dark tale that deserves to be much better known is the story of how two police officers did something about the corruption, and the terrible price they paid.
Deborah Locke joined the police in 1984 and began a three-month secondment with the Kings Cross drug squad the next year. She soon realised how things worked: on her way to work in the mornings, the prostitutes on Darlinghurst Road would tell her, “I’ve already paid sergeant so-and-so today.” One of the girls warned her, “Be careful of the blokes you’re working with, they are not nice.” This proved to be an understatement…
Source: Sydney Morning Herald 7 April, 2010
Deborah was presented in 2010 at Parliament House with the Inaugural Woman of achievement Award “Service Above Self” This award was presented by Sydney Rotary in recognition for her service to the community through her efforts to uncover Police Corruption, her service in the field of disability services and her present work in relation to domestic violence in her role as Manager of Elsie Women’s Refuge.
‘Watching the Detective’s’ is a major source of material for season 3 of the Underbelly series. Deborah is one of the featured characters that appears throughout the series as it highlights the events surrounding Kings Cross in the late 1980’s through to about 1996.
Deborah worked closely with the Screentime writers and producers to assist them with making Underbelly III as authentic as possible.
Underbelly III The Golden Mile
Cheree Cassidy (Debbie Locke) and Andrew Bibby (Greg Locke) on the steeps of Parliament House 2 November, 2009 during the filming of Underbelly III: The Golden Mile. John Waters portrays Independent MP John Hatton.
