Inspector Defends Himself In Abortion Inquiry

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 16

Inspector Defends Himself In Abortion Inquiry

, <N Z Prea» As«n Copyright) MELBOURNE, May 20. Inspector Jack Ford told Victoria’s abortion i inquiry on Tuesday that ' his version of all the facts was “consistent from start to finish.” He told Mr William Kaye. Q.C.. who is conducting the ' inquiry, “I think you have ■ to take that into considera- : tion when assessing who is I truthful and who it not.” After spending more than seven hours making his submissions, Inspector Ford said: “There is no credible evidence that I received any money or that I ever neglected my duty in any way whatsoever." He said that when Dr Margaret Ashton came to give ■ , evidence it was learned that ! she had been visited before- 1 ! hand by Mrs Berman and Dr 1 Troup. | “You have got to look at i all these people who have been visited,” he said. “We do not know what was said to them but they have not I come along and given evi-1 • dence and stopped, they have i conducted a running battle as it were.” Mr Kaye: Is there anything i in her evidence which would j suggest she was not telling the truth? Inspector Ford: I am in a j | position of knowing she did | not tell the truth. ! Mr Kaye said that Dr Ash-j ton had had great opportunities to harm people and could have exaggerated her evidence if she had wished. Inspector Ford: A good way j to tell a lie is to tell one and then tell the truth about the rest. He said that he did not deny that it was his voice on! the tape-recording that had been heard by the inquiry, but added: “We have not got I the tapes over the whole period.” Mr Kaye: You are saying that evidence contained in tape-recordings must be used with caution and phrases and ■ expressions should not be ! taken out of their context. Inspector Ford: Anything I in my favour would not have been produced. Inspector Ford said that Mrs Berman had alleged he had ruing her and threatened her life and had later made an official complaint to the Chief Commissioner, Mr Noel Wilby, about this. A tape-recording of this conversation had not been produced and this was yet another conspiracy designed to reflect on him, he said. He said that if the threat had been made as alleged, and a recording taken, “it would have been damning against me.” Inspector Ford said there was also a contradiction in Mrs Berman’s evidence regarding Dr C. K. Davidson and added that she told the inquiry that he (Inspector Ford) told Dr Davidson to stay away from Melbourne. He said that what had actually happened was the opposite, that he had advised Dr Davidson to make an appointment through his solicitor with the Homicide Squad and then return to Melbourne. “He look my. advice and did come back in a few days,” Inspector Ford said. Of his relationship with Mrs Berman, Inspector Ford said: “I realise you may find it difficult to believe I did not have intercourse with her and in a lot of ways it would have been easier for me to have said ‘yes.’ Probably you would have believed me more.” “My contention is that sex never did take place between us. She says it did and I cannot help you any further on that.” Of their meetings in Shepparton and Honolulu, Inspector Ford said that it would have been the normal thing for two people to have spent the night together in such circumstances but added that Mrs Berman agreed this did not happen. “I wish to submit that there is no credible evidence ■

that I received any money or i that I ever neglected my duty I in any way whatsoever by i | failure to prosecute or invesJtigate any complaint,” Inspector Ford said. Mr C. Villeneuve-SmithJ > counsel for Mr W. W. W. t Mooney, former deputy head of the C. 1.8., said that his client might have been indiscreet in associating with an alleged abortionist, Dr ' John Heath. But there was no evidence that he had ever accepted or demanded any money from abortionists, Mr Villeneuve-1 Smith said. Nor was there any evidence that Mr Mooney had protected or wilfully failed to prosecute an abortionist, he said. I Mr Villeneuve-Smith said, that looking back on the as-, sociation between Dr Heath i and Mr Mooney, it could be said that Mr Mooney was indiscreet and careless. Dr Heath was a “gregarious individual” with “a harmless

enough vice to have an appetite for hob-nobbing with the great and near great," he said. Full Rank When Mr Mooney went to | ■ Dr Heath’s rooms and had 1 drinks with him he was introduced by his full rank. “It was half the fun of having important people down there at his rooms,” he said. I Mr Mooney visited Dr Heath’s rooms in Collins ■ Street only on business as a policeman. i “If it was indiscreet also; I to have a drink at the ter- j: mination of those visits so be i it—that is the highest you ’ can put it" he said. “An indiscretion is not an interchangeable mask with I criminality.” j The Federal Attorney-Gen-leral (Mr Thomas Hughes) said that he was considering ■ whether proceedings should be taken against Mrs Berg- 1 man. Mr D. M. Cameron, Liberal.

Queensland, asked In the House of Representatives, if legal action would be taken against Mrs Bergman. “The woman connected with the j Victorian abortion inquiry who tapped telephone coni versations against a Commonwealth act." ■ Mr Hughes replied that Mr I Cameron seemed to presuppose some action would be taken. “All I want to say is that ■ I have the case under consideration and I will decide in due course whether, and if jso when proceedings will be I taken," he said. ! “It has not been decided ■ whether proceedings should be taken or not." t ~ At the inquiry m Melbourne into allegations of police corruption in connection with abortions a number of tape-recordings allegedly of telephone conversations between Mrs Bergman and .members of the police force, 'have been played.