SPORTING CODES
Police cold on ACC doping claims
Police cold on ACC doping claims
- The Australian
- February 13, 2013
THERE are no active criminal investigations into allegations raised by the Australian Crime Commission's year-long examination of organised crime and drugs in sport despite state-based police having been aware of its findings for the past five months.
ACC chief executive John Lawler, under pressure to defend his agency's handling of last week's sensational report warning crime gangs were infiltrating the major professional sports, said the operation had largely gathered intelligence rather than evidence and was not intended to result in arrests. "The purpose of such an operation is not to make arrests," Mr Lawler told Senate estimates yesterday. "The purpose is to understand the threat, risk and vulnerabilities."
Amid growing frustration inside the AFL and NRL about the lack of specific allegations and the damage being inflicted on the reputations of players and clubs, Mr Lawler told the estimates hearing the ACC utilised its "full suite of powers" in the operation, codenamed Project Aperio, including more than 30 coercive examinations. However, under questioning from opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis, Mr Lawler refused to say whether any current AFL or NRL players were examined as part of the operation
The Australian understands no current Essendon player was examined by the ACC despite the AFL club being the subject of serious doping allegations. The apparent hole in the ACC investigation was confirmed by multiple sources within club management, staff and the playing group. It can also be revealed that Stephen Dank, the scientist who designed and administered the club's 2012 treatment program suspected of breaching anti-doping rules, appeared twice before the ACC.
Mr Dank's first interview was in May last year, four months before he left the club. He was interviewed a second time in December. It is understood he was not accused of committing a crime in the course of either interview. He was unable to inform the club of the May interview because of the secrecy provisions surrounding the ACC and denies he gave any players banned substances.
Mr Lawler yesterday maintained the ACC operation, which was aided by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and the Therapeutic Goods Administration, had uncovered widespread use in sport of a new generation of performance-enhancing drugs known as peptides and identified risks posed by organised crime seeking to infiltrate and corrupt professional sport.
Mr Lawler also defended his decision to invite federal ministers and the heads of the major sports to Canberra to the public release of the report, saying the highly public launch had delivered an "important message of public safety" about drugs in sport.
In an interview with The Australian, ACC executive director Paul Jevtovic confirmed the dissemination of intelligence from the report had yet to result in a single active police investigation.
Victoria, Queensland, West Australian and South Australia police last night said intelligence reports from the ACC operation were being assessed but no investigations had been launched in their jurisdictions. A NSW Police spokesman said it had investigated an allegation of illicit drug use which arose from the ACC operation but that case had been suspended.
Mr Jevtovic stressed the probe was in its early phases and that a number of agencies had received and were studying a classified version of the report. He said the vast majority of the material relied upon in the report was gleaned by the ACC - not its partner agencies. "It's my view that in the fullness of time in the law enforcement context, appropriate investigations will be undertaken,"
He said the ACC had focused its operation on the links between professional athletes and crime figures, the use of performance-enhancing and illicit drugs and the risks of serious corruption including blackmail and match fixing. "We are satisfied that organised crime is and has infiltrated our sport in Australia," he said. "We're satisfied that players are at risk."
Mr Lawler said federal Sports Minister Kate Lundy was first briefed on Project Aperio in September and Justice Minister Jason Clare in December. A meeting of state police agency representatives was given details of the operation on September 18, during last year's AFL and NRL finals series.
The release of last week's report, which former ASADA boss Richard Ings dubbed "the blackest day in Australian sport", is the source of growing frustration within AFL and NRL clubs still waiting be told the detail of anti-doping allegations against players and officials. Two AFL clubs and as many as six NRL clubs have learned they are under investigation.
Leading NRL coach Wayne Bennett, whose Newcastle Knights are under ASADA scrutiny, lamented the way the issue had been handled.
"They want us to confess to something - I am racking my head what we have got to confess to," he said.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said the damning claims and absence of specific allegations had damaged hard-earned reputations. "For the 12 hours after the announcement last week you were wondering, 'Gee, that is a lot worse than what I suspected and what I thought'. I think all of us have seen it watered down as time has gone on over the past week or so to the point where there is an element of frustration.
"If you are going to make those claims then be specific about them because you have tarnished the sport and you have brought individuals of great quality and reputation into disrepute."
Senator Brandis, in questioning Mr Lawler, said the absence of specific allegations had cast innuendo over all sport.
"There are lots of people involved in sport . . . and Australians are feeling very distressed that all sport, without differentiation, is being tarred with the same brush," he said.
Senator Lundy disputed the claim that Australian sport has been tarred but said: "We have a serious situation that affects not just the two codes, but indeed all sports. We have a responsibility as a government, as do leaders of those codes, to work together co-operatively and very strongly to fight these insidious changes in sport."
She said due process must be allowed to take place. "The NSW (Police), Victoria Police and ASADA are now working closely with the codes, as is the Australia Crime Commission, to make sure the appropriate information gets out to clubs, and those investigations are under way."
Civil liberties campaigner and Queensland lawyer Michael Cope questioned why the ACC had devoted its resources and employed its coercive powers to gather information about the use by elite athletes of drugs which, although banned by the World Anti-Doping Authority, are legally available.
He said the operation was an example of government agencies such as ASADA using the powers of the ACC to circumvent privilege against self-incrimination. "The drugs in sport side of this investigation just seems to be completely outside what you would have thought the powers would be used for," he said.
Additional reporting: Milanda Rout, Greg Denham
No comments:
Post a Comment