‘Routine’ job that turned fatal would not have been initiated had NSW police passed on threatening emails to Queensland colleagues, court told
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Police would not have been sent to Wieambilla ambush if killer’s emails had been passed on, inquest hears
‘Routine’ job that turned fatal would not have been initiated had NSW police passed on threatening emails to Queensland colleagues, court told
Queensland police constable Stephanie Abbott, who emailed the four officers to pass on the duty, said she would not have done so if she had seen the messages.
Abbott told the inquest she would have wanted to know more information before jumping the fence on a large property and “I’d look at involving specialist units, or at least have someone rifle trained and ballistic vests on” if doing so.
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Acting sergeant Justin Drier testified that he advised her on 12 December, and stood by as Abbott conducted checks for flags on the 251 Wains Road, Wieambilla, address on the Queensland police system.
“There was no flags or warnings at that actual address on our QPrime system,” he said.
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At the time Drier considered it a “routine” job, but if he had seen the emails from Gareth Train it would have turned it into a “high-risk address attendance”, he said.
“I would not have sent a crew, I would have [sought] advice,” he said.
The inquest heard they could have contacted the criminal investigative branch, based in Dalby, for advice.
Det Chief Insp Garry Watts said if he had been contacted and sent the emails he would have asked intelligence officers to conduct more in-depth checks than the frontline officers were able to.
They might have contacted specialist teams, such as the fixated person’s unit, he said.
“I don’t believe we would have sent four police there,” Watts said.
He said there was no urgency to the task, which could have waited for additional checks.