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Accused drug squad detective bailed
By Selma Milovanovic
March 16, 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/15/1079199160197.html
Wayne Strawhorn leaves court after being granted bail.
Picture: Andrew De La Rue
Victoria's most experienced drug squad detective spent last night at home for the first time since his arrest a year ago after he was granted bail.
Magistrate Angela Bolger released Wayne Geoffrey Strawhorn on bail with a $150,000 surety, ruling that a two-year delay before the allegations of drug trafficking and threats to kill came to trial formed exceptional circumstances.
But Ms Bolger rejected a defence submission that Strawhorn's alleged threat to kill a senior corruption investigator - secretly taped by police - was simply a "throwaway line".
The Melbourne Magistrates Court had heard Strawhorn, 49, told the witness he would "not rest until (the investigator) is dead" and in a later response said he would kill the investigator himself as it was "the only way to get satisfaction".
Ms Bolger, who listened to the covert tape, said Strawhorn's words were "spoken with a sense of serious deliberation and they demonstrate a purposefulness of intent".
She said any allegation of police corruption "strikes at the heart of the administration of justice" but that "a delay exceeding two years' duration... is in my view an exceptional circumstance".
Strawhorn, a suspended detective senior sergeant who last week pleaded not guilty to seven charges, was ordered to report to police three times a week, not contact or go within 500 metres of the senior corruption investigator and surrender his passport. The Age cannot report all of Ms Bolger's reasons for her decision because of a suppression order.
Strawhorn is accused of directing a colleague to buy 5.5 kilograms of pseudoephedrine from Sigma Pharmaceuticals, which were later illegally sold by informers. None of the purchases was authorised by police.
The drug, when converted to methylamphetamine, had a street value of between $220,000 and $450,000, but Strawhorn made $80,000 from sales made through informers, according to a brief of evidence tendered to the court.
Informers allegedly sold two kilograms of the drug to murdered underworld figure Mark Moran in May 2000, while it is alleged that Strawhorn falsely claimed to his colleague that he needed pure pseudoephedrine for "a job involving persons for the National Crime Authority".
Strawhorn's bank records show that between May and September 2000 he spent more than $14,000 on house renovations. The detective, whose salary was $65,100 during the 1999-2000 financial year, also had $28,600 in untraced deposits, according to the brief of evidence.
An informer told the court that Strawhorn told him after the anti-corruption Ceja taskforce was formed that the May 2000 pseudoephedrine transaction "didn't happen".
In February 2001, he allegedly told a senior corruption investigator the drug squad had not bought any pseudoephedrine from Sigma since 1998. Strawhorn faces a directions hearing in the Supreme Court in June.
By Selma Milovanovic
March 16, 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/15/1079199160197.html
Wayne Strawhorn leaves court after being granted bail.
Picture: Andrew De La Rue
Victoria's most experienced drug squad detective spent last night at home for the first time since his arrest a year ago after he was granted bail.
Magistrate Angela Bolger released Wayne Geoffrey Strawhorn on bail with a $150,000 surety, ruling that a two-year delay before the allegations of drug trafficking and threats to kill came to trial formed exceptional circumstances.
But Ms Bolger rejected a defence submission that Strawhorn's alleged threat to kill a senior corruption investigator - secretly taped by police - was simply a "throwaway line".
The Melbourne Magistrates Court had heard Strawhorn, 49, told the witness he would "not rest until (the investigator) is dead" and in a later response said he would kill the investigator himself as it was "the only way to get satisfaction".
Ms Bolger, who listened to the covert tape, said Strawhorn's words were "spoken with a sense of serious deliberation and they demonstrate a purposefulness of intent".
She said any allegation of police corruption "strikes at the heart of the administration of justice" but that "a delay exceeding two years' duration... is in my view an exceptional circumstance".
Strawhorn, a suspended detective senior sergeant who last week pleaded not guilty to seven charges, was ordered to report to police three times a week, not contact or go within 500 metres of the senior corruption investigator and surrender his passport. The Age cannot report all of Ms Bolger's reasons for her decision because of a suppression order.
Strawhorn is accused of directing a colleague to buy 5.5 kilograms of pseudoephedrine from Sigma Pharmaceuticals, which were later illegally sold by informers. None of the purchases was authorised by police.
The drug, when converted to methylamphetamine, had a street value of between $220,000 and $450,000, but Strawhorn made $80,000 from sales made through informers, according to a brief of evidence tendered to the court.
Informers allegedly sold two kilograms of the drug to murdered underworld figure Mark Moran in May 2000, while it is alleged that Strawhorn falsely claimed to his colleague that he needed pure pseudoephedrine for "a job involving persons for the National Crime Authority".
Strawhorn's bank records show that between May and September 2000 he spent more than $14,000 on house renovations. The detective, whose salary was $65,100 during the 1999-2000 financial year, also had $28,600 in untraced deposits, according to the brief of evidence.
An informer told the court that Strawhorn told him after the anti-corruption Ceja taskforce was formed that the May 2000 pseudoephedrine transaction "didn't happen".
In February 2001, he allegedly told a senior corruption investigator the drug squad had not bought any pseudoephedrine from Sigma since 1998. Strawhorn faces a directions hearing in the Supreme Court in June.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")