Daniel John Keneally, son of former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, has rebutted allegations that he had fabricated significant portions of a statement, which consequently resulted in an innocent man’s wrongful incarceration.
The police have charged Constable Keneally of creating false evidence in 2021, pertaining to a phone call he had received during his tenure as an officer in Sydney’s inner-west region.
The central contention arises from his accused misreporting of a conversation with Luke Moore, founder of the website ISuepolice. Moore had called the Newtown Police Station on February 24, aiming to address the issue of illicit strip-searches conducted by the NSW Police.
Constable Keneally is alleged to have constructed a falsified report, asserting that Moore had during this call, declared a rural detective “dead”, “gone” and “off the planet”. Following this report, Moore was charged and detained for three weeks prior to the dismissal of charges and receipt of a formal state apology.
This incident prompted the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to intervene and lawfully charge Constable Keneally, who has since offered a plea of ‘not guilty’ to the fabrication of fallacious evidence intended to deceive a judicial tribunal.
Paul McGirr, Keneally’s lawyer, pled that his client had unintentionally erred in intertwining the phone call contents with the ISuepolice website, that he was simultaneously navigating.
During court proceedings, Constable Keneally testified his belief of Moore’s intent to annihilate and stalk a rural detective through indirect references made during the seemingly “rambling and incoherent” call. However, upon scrutiny of the call recordings, no explicit threats of violence or the mention of a rural detective surfaced.
Still, Constable Keneally avowed that the references were implicitly present, given a combined understanding with the website. Also, he deduced implicit threats on Mr. Moore’s platform, backed by his previous criminal records showcasing a propensity for violence.
Contradictory evidences surfaced during the trial; the constable’s official report entailing an extensive recall of the conversation failed to match up with the actual recording of the call. His alleged interrogation of Moore regarding the conspicuous statement of having the detective “gone” was found absent in the recorded call.
The crown prosecutor, Daniel Boyle, keyed in on the recorded absence of the alleged threats Moore was accused of. Refuting Keneally’s account, he posed, “These are words you just made up, are they?”
Constable Keneally responded, claiming his belief of the events at the time of penning the statement. Despite acknowledging “significant differences” with the actual recorded conversation, he denied any ill-intent in the reporting, clarifying that he intended to communicate the best of his understanding and belief of the circumstances.
The hearing is set to resume before Magistrate Rodney Brender on Tuesday.