By Malcolm Brown
August 17 2002
The "Meltdown Man", a police informer permanently scarred by a
botched arson job, gave evidence to the Police Integrity Commission
(PIC) yesterday that he was given one reward payment without knowing
what it was for.
The Meltdown Man, known in PIC proceedings as M13, said the
payment, given to him in 1998 by senior detective Dennis Peter "Doodles"
O'Toole in a coffee shop near the Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills,
was "clouded".
Mr O'Toole had handed him a piece of paper to sign and had then
handed him $250 in a cigarette packet. The Meltdown Man assumed he had
signed the paper as an authorisation for Mr O'Toole to give him the
money.
He had told investigators recently that he suspected it had been a
reward Mr O'Toole had negotiated for him for information he had or was
purported to have given and that Mr O'Toole had pocketed the rest.
The Meltdown Man said he had first encountered Mr O'Toole in 1976
when Mr O'Toole and other police had arrested him on a break-and-enter
charge.
Mr O'Toole and another police officer had introduced themselves by
taking him back to North Sydney police station and beating him up.
The Meltdown Man had not complained about his beating and had
become an informant for Mr O'Toole over the years. He had received
legitimate reward money, including $1600 in 1996 for giving information
on a jewellery robbery.
Questioned yesterday by Chris O'Donnell, counsel assisting the
Police Integrity Commission, the Meltdown Man said he did not know what
the $250 was for and it "may have been" for information Mr O'Toole had
purported that he had given when he had not.
`
He said that in 1993 Mr O'Toole had contacted him and asked him
to do "a favour", which was to make false statements that would assist
another detective, James King, beat a drink-drive charge. The Meltdown
Man had done so, including giving perjured evidence, and Mr King had
beaten the charge.
The hearing resumes on Monday.
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