Saturday, August 17, 2002

Payment by was a mystery, PIC told

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.
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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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