Source : Perth Now news
The strip search activist who was wrongly thrown in jail for three weeks after the police officer son of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally fabricated a statement is suing the state for malicious prosecution.
Luke Moore was arrested after Daniel Keneally falsely stated the Goulburn man had threatened that he wanted a regional detective “dead” and that he was “as good as gone”.
Keneally was subsequently charged and found guilty of falsifying an official report about the February 2021 phone call with Mr Moore, the founder of a website called iSuepolice.
The District Court was last year played a 12-minute recording of the phone call to Newtown Police Station in which Mr Moore complained about illegal strip searches.
During the call Mr Moore said he was calling every police station in the state to put them “on notice” that if any officer performed an illegal strip search they would open themselves up to being sued.
Mr Moore said during the call that his company was suing NSW Police on behalf of alleged victims and was commanding five-figure sums in exchange for securing compensation for clients.
However he made no threats to the officer during the call.
Keneally was ordered to serve a 15-month intensive corrections order, pay a $2000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service after he last year lost an attempt to overturn his conviction, unsuccessfully arguing he had not intended to give false evidence.
Mr Moore is now suing the state for malicious prosecution and on Tuesday appeared in the NSW Supreme Court where he gave evidence about his three weeks in jail before he was let out and the charges were dropped because he had recorded his phone call with Keneally.
Mr Moore told the court on Tuesday morning that following his 2021 arrest, while in his cell his overheard a conversation between officers that police would be opposing his release on bail.
He said that from his cell, he called over an officer, who was in the jail complex, and told him that he had a recording of the conversation with Keneally on his phone and denied making any threats.
“I said … that I recorded all the phone calls that I made to the police station and they were all on my phone and if he went and got my phone it would prove I was telling the truth,” Mr Moore said.
Luke Brett Moore arrives at the Supreme Court in Sydney for his false imprisonment case against the state of NSW
He said he was told the phone had been taken into evidence and he would have to wait until it was processed.
He said he repeatedly pleaded with the detective: “I didn’t say those things” and urged him to check his phone.
It wasn’t until the brief of evidence was served on him that he was able to listen to the recording which ultimately led to him being released.
Under cross examination, he accepted that during his police interview he was asked about any exculpatory evidence, but did not mention the recording, saying he may have misunderstood the question at the time.
Mr Moore was also cross examined about his conviction – which was overturned on appeal and quashed – for fraud charges after he overdrew $2.1m from a bank account to fund the purchase of cars, a boat and other luxury items.
Mr Moore was in 2015 jailed after being found guilty of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and dealing with the proceeds of crime. The convictions were then quashed and he was released from custody.
He was sentenced to a minimum of two years and three months in jail.
The court was told Mr Moore was on Centrelink when he opened a St George bank account which allowed him to overdraw and continually take out loans from the account.
Audio of a phone call between the police officer son of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, Daniel Keneally, and the founder of website isuepolice.com.
The court heard he splurged on luxury cars like an Aston Martin, a Maserati and an Alfa Romeo, as well as purchasing art, despite having no prospect of paying back the money.
By the time it was frozen, the account had a negative balance of $2.1m.
The bank was able to recover over $1m from Mr Moore’s other accounts, the court was told on Tuesday.
In 2016, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his conviction after finding that while he acted dishonestly, he did not deceive the bank because the terms of the account allowed him to borrow money.
“Mr Moore what you did over those three years was dishonest wasn’t it?” Barrister Adrian Williams, acting for the State of NSW, asked in court on Tuesday.
“It’s been characterised as that,” Mr Moore said.
“Do you not accept that?” Mr Williams asked.
“There’s no denying what I did wasn’t honest,” Mr Moore said.
The trial before Justice Richard Cavanagh continues later this week.
