‘I Did Not Say That I Would Just Have to Swear in Court and It Would Be Alright’: Police Verballing Practices in Queensland Courts, 1926–61

Abstract

Trends in large-scale historical data reveal continuities and changes in the prosecution process that might otherwise pass unnoticed. A significant trend emerging from the Prosecution Project database is the dramatic acceleration of early guilty pleas in Queensland's Supreme Court from the late 1940s. An examination of detectives’ testimony provides unique evidence of the police investigation and interrogation practices underpinning this phenomenon. Confession evidence dominated the police prosecution case during this period, specifically verbal confessions. A close reading of these texts suggests that some Queensland police engaged in police ‘verballing’ practices much earlier than identified by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. I argue that process corruption had tangible results by transforming the prosecution process from an adversarial to a guilty plea system.

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their generous feedback which was instrumental in shaping this argument, and extend thanks also to the editors of AHS, Mark Finnane and Jillian Beard, for their advice and feedback. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Mark Finnane, Andy Kaladelfos, Alana Piper, Yorick Smaal, Robyn Blewer and Lisa Durnian, et al., The Prosecution Project Database (version 1, 17 July 2016), 206–7, Substitute with: https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au (hereafter PP). A sample of 5,000 cases was collected from the ‘Prosecution Project’ that comprises every prosecution in a single year, at five-yearly intervals from 1901 to 1956. The 1961 sample comprises all cases prosecuted in February, April, July and October of that year due to a spike in prosecutions in 1961.

2 Lisa Durnian, ‘The Rise of the Guilty Plea in Australian Supreme Courts: A History’ (PhD thesis, Griffith University, 2018), 73.

3 Ibid., 87.

4 R.R. Kidston, ‘The Office of Crown Prosecutor (More Particularly in New South Wales)’, Australian Law Journal 32 (1958): 151–2. It was only once the case had been committed for trial that crown prosecutors might use their discretion to either withdraw or continue with the prosecution, dependent on the evidence provided by police.

5 David Dixon, Law in Policing: Legal Regulation and Police Practices (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 80.

6 Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England: 1750–1900, 5th edn (London: Routledge, 2018), 199.

7 For a general overview of the Queensland Police Force, see W. Ross Johnston, The Long Blue Line: A History of the Queensland Police (Brisbane: Boolarong Publications, 1992).

8 Mark Finnane and Stephen Garton, ‘The Work of Policing: Social Relations and the Criminal Justice System in Queensland 1880–1914: Part 1’, Labour History 62 (1992); ‘The Work of Policing: Social Relations and the Criminal Justice System in Queensland 1880–1914: Part 2’, Labour History 63 (1992).

9 Mark Finnane, ‘Police Rules and the Organisation of Policing in Queensland, 1905–1916’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 22, no. 2 (1989); Mark Finnane, ‘The Politics of Police Powers: The Making of Police Offences Acts’, in Policing in Australia: Historical Perspectives, ed. Mark Finnane (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1987); Lisa Durnian, ‘Police Practices and the Judges’ Rules, 1926–1961’, Law & History 5, no. 2 (2018).

10 Mark Finnane, Police and Government: Histories of Policing in Australia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994); Mark Finnane, ‘The Fitzgerald Commission: Law, Politics and State Corruption in Queensland’, Australian Journal of Public Administration 47, no. 4 (1988); Mark Finnane, ‘Police Corruption and Police Reform: The Fitzgerald Inquiry in Queensland, Australia’, Policing and Society 1, no. 2 (1990); Mark Lauchs, Robyn Keast and Nina Yousefpour, ‘Corrupt Police Networks: Uncovering Hidden Relationship Patterns, Functions and Roles’, Policing and Society 21, no. 1 (2011); Mark Lauchs, Robyn Keast and Daniel Chamberlain, ‘Resilience of a Corrupt Police Network: The First and Second Jokes in Queensland’, Crime, Law and Social Change 57, no. 2 (2012); Tim Prenzler, ‘Change and Continuity in Australian Policing’, in Crime over Time: Temporal Perspectives on Crime and Punishment in Australia, eds Robyn Lincoln and Shirleene Robinson (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010); Colleen Lewis, Janet Ransley and Ross Homel, ‘The State We Were In’, in The Fitzgerald Legacy: Reforming Public Life in Australia and Beyond, eds Colleen Lewis, Janet Ransley and Ross Homel (Brisbane: Australian Academic Press, 2010); Paul Bleakley, ‘“No Action Required”: A Historical Pattern of Inaction and Discretion towards Child Sexual Abuse in Queensland Policing’, The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X19839281.

11 David Brown, ‘The Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service: Process Corruption and the Limits of Judicial Reflexivity’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice 9, no. 3 (1998): 230.

12 Tim Prenzler, Police Corruption: Preventing Misconduct and Maintaining Integrity, 1st edn (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2009), 16.

13 Finnane, Police and Government, 77; Mark Finnane, ‘Phillip's Brief: The Third Degree’, Criminal Law Journal 41 (2017); Robert Haldane, The People's Force: A History of the Victoria Police, 3rd edn (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2017), http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=5684069; Karl Alderson, ‘Powers and Responsibilities: Reforming NSW Criminal Investigation Law’ (PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 2001).

14 ‘Third Degree’, Warwick Examiner and Times, 11 August 1909, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82317940; ‘The Third Degree’, Truth, 21 December 1913, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202662476; ‘Third Degree’, The Daily Mail, 5 February 1921, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213069527; ‘Third Degree’, The Evening News, 21 December 1926, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202410371; ‘Prisoner Ill-Treated’, Daily Advertiser, 21 February 1930, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142747794; ‘Young Thief Accuses Police’, Truth, 24 June 1934, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169327199; ‘Judge Clears Police of Violence Charges, Cloncurry Bank Robbery’, Balonne Beacon, 1 June 1935, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article215390056; ‘Truth to Tell’, Truth, 27 June 1948, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203232158; ‘Accuses Police’, Brisbane Telegraph, 11 December 1950, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article216584786; ‘Detective for Trial on Charge of Assault’, Warwick Daily News, 8 May 1951, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190442810 (all above accessed 3 March 2018).

15 Richard A. Leo, ‘The Third Degree and the Origins of Psychological Interrogation in the United States’, in Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment, ed. G. Daniel Lassiter (New York: Kluwer Academic, 2004), 52; John Carter Wood, ‘“The Third Degree”: Press Reporting, Crime Fiction and Police Powers in 1920s Britain’, Twentieth Century British History 21, no. 4 (2010).

16 Finnane, Police and Government, 77; Finnane, ‘The Third Degree’.

17 David Brown, ‘Breaking the Code of Silence. The Wood Royal Commission into New South Wales Police: A Brief Overview’, Alternative Law Journal 22, no. 5 (1997): 222.

18 The judiciary in NSW were similarly ‘hostile’ or ‘naïve’: see Brown, ‘Royal Commission’, 237.

19 John Baldwin and Mike McConville, Negotiated Justice: Pressures to Plead Guilty (London: Martin Robertson, 1977), 68–70.

20 In some cases, police did not disclose the initial reason for approaching or apprehending a defendant even when there were multiple charges, and the police interviews for all offences were conducted in the local watch house. Magistrates did not appear to notice, or be concerned about, these anomalies in police evidence.

21 Ian Bryan, Interrogation and Confession: A Study of Progress, Process and Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), 161.

22 Cecil James Carroll, The Queensland Policeman's Manual (Brisbane: Queensland Government, 1939). General Instruction 1515 (2).

23 Section 10, Criminal Law Amendment Act 1894 (Qld).

24 William Geoffrey Cahill, The Queensland Policeman's Manual (Brisbane: Queensland Government, 1914); William Harold Ryan, The Queensland Policeman's Manual (Brisbane: Queensland Government, 1925); Carroll; John Smith, The Queensland Policeman's Manual (Brisbane: Queensland Government, 1953), General Instruction 688.

25 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96179, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #52556, Queensland Supreme Court (QLDSC), Anon., 1951, and PP, Trial ID #52557, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

26 ‘Violence Plea Called “Thin”’, Brisbane Telegraph, 11 February 1954, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/217205649 (accessed 3 March 2018).

27 G.L. Teh, ‘An Examination of the Judges’ Rules in Australia’, The Australian Law Journal 46, no. 10 (1972): 494–5.

28 Mark Finnane has shown how Australian policing culture valued convictions ‘at all costs’: see Finnane, Police and Government, 77.

29 Durnian, ‘Police Practices and Judges’ Rules’, 59. For a broader discussion on the Judges’ Rules, see Teh; and Wood, ‘“The Third Degree”’.

30 Queensland State Archives, Item ID95995, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #17916, QLDSC, Anon., 1941.

31 Queensland State Archives, Item ID867934; PP, Trial ID #35578, QLDSC, Frederick Holloway, 1936.

32 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96173; PP, Trial ID #36691, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

33 Russell Hogg, ‘Identifying and Reforming the Problems of the Justice System’, in Travesty! Miscarriages of Justice, eds Kerry Carrington et al. (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1991), 244.

34 Nina Stevenson, ‘Criminal Cases in the NSW District Court: A Pilot Study’, in The Criminal Injustice System, eds John Basten et al. (Melbourne: Australian Legal Worker's Group, 1982), 140; Baldwin and McConville, 68.

35 ‘Police Interrogation’, ed. T.J. Lehane, The Queensland Justice of the Peace and Local Authorities’ Journal (Brisbane: Law Book Company of Queensland, 1960), 121–5.

36 Baldwin and McConville, 68.

37 Geoffrey A.G. Lucas, Desmond G. Sturgess and Dynes M. Becker, ‘Report of Committee of Inquiry into the Enforcement of Criminal Law in Queensland’ [The Lucas Report] (Brisbane: The Queensland Government, 1977); Gerald Edward Fitzgerald, ‘Report of a Commission of Inquiry Pursuant to Orders in Council: Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct’ [The Fitzgerald Report] (Brisbane: The Queensland Government, 1989); James Roland T. Wood, ‘Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service: Final Report’ (Sydney: NSW Government, 1997); G.A. Kennedy, ‘Royal Commission into Whether There Has Been Corrupt or Criminal Conduct by Any Western Australian Police Officer: Final Report Volume 2’ (Perth: Government of Western Australia, 2004).

38 Lucas et al.; Fitzgerald.

39 Fitzgerald, 206; Jack Herbert and Tom Gilling, The Bagman: Final Confessions of Jack Herbert (Sydney: ABC Books, 2004), 207.

40 Fitzgerald, 206–7.

41 R v Nielson [1930] QWN 15.

42 Wood, ‘Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service: Final Report’.

43 Herbert and Gilling, 40–1.

44 Frank Bischof became an inspector in 1949, was appointed officer-in-charge of the Brisbane CIB in 1955, and in 1958 became Queensland Police Commissioner: see W. Ross Johnston, ‘Bischof, Francis Erich (Frank) (1904–1979)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, ed. National Centre of Biography (Australian National University, 1993). As Commissioner, Bischof protected the first network of graft and corruption involving Lewis, Herbert, and Tony Murphy: see Lauchs et al., ‘Resilience of a Corrupt Police Network’, 205.

45 Phil Dickie, The Road to Fitzgerald (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1988), 54.

46 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96179, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #52562, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

47 Ibid.

48 ‘Jail for Kite on 3 Counts’, Brisbane Telegraph, 6 June 1951, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212085130 (accessed 3 March 2018).

49 R v Cross [1946] QSR Qd 65.

50 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96173, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #36690, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

51 Ibid.; ‘Accuses Police’, Brisbane Telegraph, 11 December 1950, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article216584786 (accessed 3 March 2018).

52 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96173, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #36690, QLDSC, Anon., 1951; Justices Act 1886 (Qld).

53 David Brown et al., Criminal Laws: Materials and Commentary on Criminal Law and Process in NSW (Sydney: Federation Press, 1990), 301.

54 ‘Counsel Alleges Police Used “Stand-over Tactics” to Get Confession from Woman’, The Telegraph, 1 December 1938, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article184347427 (accessed 3 March 2018); Brown, ‘Royal Commission’, 237.

55 Brown et al., 300; J.V. Barry, G.W. Paton and G. Sawer, An Introduction to the Criminal Law in Australia (London: Macmillan, 1948), 79.

56 R v Thompson [1961] Qd R 503.

57 Baldwin and McConville, 68–9.

58 Alderson, 261.

59 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96179, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #40144, QLDSC, Anon., 1956.

60 Queensland State Archives, Item ID1677081, Depositions; PP, Trial ID #38443, QLDSC, Anon., 1961.

61 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96306, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #55458, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

62 Durnian, ‘Police Practices and Judges’ Rules’, 23.

63 Queensland State Archives, Item ID95776, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #32474, QLDSC, Mabel Travers, 1926; Queensland State Archives, Item ID95777, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #39757, QLDSC, George Miller, 1926; Queensland State Archives, Item ID3410, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #33936, QLDSC, John Walder, 1931.

64 Cross-examination of Detective Acting Sergeant Michael Cahill. Queensland State Archives, Item ID95777, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #39757, QLDSC, George Miller, 1926.

65 Queensland State Archives, Item ID3410, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #33936, QLDSC, John Walder, 1931.

66 Queensland State Archives, Item ID95776, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #32474, QLDSC, Mabel Travers, 1926.

67 Cross-examination of Police Constable Thomas O’Rourke. Queensland State Archives, Item ID95777, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #39757, QLDSC, George Miller, 1926.

68 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96184, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #37214, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

69 Queensland State Archives, Item ID96179, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #52562, QLDSC, Anon., 1951.

70 Prenzler, Police Corruption, 16.

71 Herbert and Gilling, 67.

72 Lucas et al.; Fitzgerald; Wood, ‘Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service: Final Report’; Kennedy.

73 Brown, ‘Royal Commission’, 223.

74 Queensland State Archives, Item ID3410, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #33936, QLDSC, John Walder, 1931.

75 Queensland State Archives, Item ID95928, Depositions and indictments; PP, Trial ID #47785, QLDSC, Edgar Smith, 1936.

76 Brown et al., 300.

77 Dixon, Law in Policing, 74–5.

78 Bryan, 161.

79 Fitzgerald, 207.

80 Ibid.

81 Maurice Punch, ‘Rotten Orchards: “Pestilence”, Police Misconduct and System Failure’, Policing and Society 13, no. 2 (2003): 187–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460308026; Gisli H. Gudjonsson, ‘Unreliable Confessions and Miscarriages of Justice in Britain’, International Journal of Police Science and Management 4, no. 4 (2002), https://doi.org/10.1350/ijps.4.4.332.10880. Police were found to have used force and coercion to obtain signed confessions and fabricated verbal confession evidence from the ‘Birmingham Six’ and the ‘Guildford Four’ during the investigation of Irish Republican Army bombings in the 1970s.

82 David Dixon, ‘Reform, Regression and the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service’, in A Culture of Corruption: Changing an Australian Police Service, ed. David Dixon (Sydney: Hawkins Press, 1999), 170.

83 Michael McConville and John Baldwin, ‘The Role of Interrogation in Crime Discovery and Conviction’, British Journal of Criminology 22, no. 1 (1982): 169.

84 Finnane, ‘The Fitzgerald Commission’, 336.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, FL130100050, 2013–18 and Griffith University.