P.M. to study Dunedin report

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 3

P.M. to study Dunedin report

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, says he will read and consider a privately commissioned report on the way police investigated complaints against a senior Dunedin detective. However, the policecommissioned report into the so-called Dunedin sexring had been good, Mr Lange said yesterday. The “New Zealand Times" reported on Sunday that a 22,000-word private report alleging

policemen were implicated in a “cover-up” had been sent to Mr Lange. He has also been sent a 5000-signature petition calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into events after a 1984 allegation that a former detective tried to pervert the course of justice. A police inquiry last year rejected the allegation by a Dunedin detective that his investigation of organised schoolgirl sex. shows was halted his superior realised

a suspect was the father of another policeman. Mr Lange said he had read the police report and was satisfied it was a “good” inquiry. If anything emerged from the private report, he would seriously consider what to do with it "But at the moment there is a lot of conjecture emerging from Dunedin and not a lot of fact” An inquiry remained an option “but I am not saying it is a possibility”. The report sent $o Mr

Lange was prepared by a retired senior-sergeant, Mr Selwyn Byers. The retired policeman was asked by the wife of the detective who made the original complaint to' review a file of the police inquiry into his allegation. The "New Zealand Times” reported that Mr Byers reviewed 60 pages of police files and raised questions about the internal police inquiry. It said legal reasons prevented it from printing the report’s conclusions.