EXCLUSIVE: A man who has launched a legal advocacy firm to fight on behalf of victims of police harassment and strip searches was set upon by NSW Police’s controversial Fixated Persons Unit and placed in solitary confinement for three weeks on trumped-up charges that were later dismissed after Constable Daniel Keneally, the police officer son of high-profile Labor senator Kristina Keneally, allegedly fabricated claims that he had received death threats. Serkan Ozturk reports.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and his police force’s use of the controversial Fixated Persons Unit to harass members of the public speaking out on political or police corruption is once again under the spotlight after a man was placed into solitary confinement for three weeks earlier this year after Constable Daniel Keneally – the police officer son of high-profile Labor senator, Kristina Keneally – falsely claimed he had received death threats.
The Labor Party is planning to parachute Senator Keneally into the safe Western Sydney seat of Fowler at the upcoming federal election so that she may move from the Senate into the House of Representatives.
The move has caused some controversy as the well-connected Keneally lives nowhere near the electorate, instead owning a property on Scotland Island in the affluent Pittwater area of Sydney. Senator Keneally’s parachuting has also meant Tu Le, a popular local lawyer with Vietnamese heritage, has been shafted for a privileged White Woman instead.
Senator Keneally was the premier of NSW during the hey day of Eddie Obeid’s widespread corrupt activities that netted him and his family at least tens of millions of dollars, most of which he apparently does not have to pay back despite being sent to prison for a second time last week over political corruption.
Obeid’s corruption was widely regarded as an ‘open secret’ within the NSW Labor Party at the time but was largely overlooked because of his ‘powerbroker’ role within the Labor Right faction.
Senator Keneally’s son, Constable Daniel Keneally, meanwhile graduated from the Goulburn Police Academy in February 2019. And just two years later, he has landed himself and NSW Police in a spot of serious bother.
The 23-year-old, who is stationed at Newtown Police Station in Sydney’s inner-west, is alleged to have fabricated a statement that he received death threats targeting fellow police officers during a phone call from 34-year-old Luke Brett Moore on the night of 24 February of this year.
Constable Keneally claimed in an official written police statement that has been seen by True Crime News Weekly that during the phone call Mr Moore made threats to kill Commissioner Mick Fuller and Goulburn police officer, Detective Ed Taylor.
Due to Constable Keneally’s statement of claims, Mr Moore’s home in Nowra was soon raided by members of the Fixated Persons Unit and he was arrested on charges of using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and two charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
Mr Moore was then jailed and placed into three weeks of solitary confinement at the South Coast Correctional Centre. Police also took Mr Moore’s laptop and mobile phone and kept them for at least four months. He was then refused bail on February 26 and while appearing via video link for the hearing from Nowra Police Station it is alleged Mr Moore broke a clock hanging on the wall of the police station, for which additional charges were also placed upon him. A trial related to those charges will be heard at Nowra Local Court later this week on Wednesday, October 27.
RELATED: BEREJIKLIAN’S BURDEN TO GET BIGGER … WAY BIGGER! ‘Gulag’ Gladys Berejiklian & John ‘Bruz’ Barilaro Go Before They’re Pushed Over Corruption Connections in NSW That Went on FOR YEARS Including Alleged Child Rape & Murder Cover-Ups AND a Repeat of the ‘Barnaby Joyce Scandal’
At the time of his arrest, police incredulously claimed Mr Moore was suffering from a mental illness, and he wasn’t aware of the serious nature of the threats he was making.
We say ‘incredulously’ as an audio recording that exists of the phone call between Constable Keneally and Mr Moore clearly shows that no death threats were ever made, and that Constable Keneally simply made it all up.
It is likely that having graduated from Goulburn Police Academy just two years earlier, Constable Keneally is on friendly terms with several police officers based in Goulburn.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION BETWEEN
CONSTABLE DANIEL KENEALLY & LUKE MOORE
True Crime News Weekly has been leaked the full audio recording of the phone call between Constable Keneally and Mr Moore.
We can verify that at no point during the recording does Mr Moore mention anything to Constable Keneally that could be interpreted as a death threat.
In late August, police prosecutors after hearing the audio recording dropped all charges against Mr Moore relating to the phone call to Constable Keneally and he was also paid costs of at least $12,000.
Furthermore, NSW Police just recently conceded on Sunday, October 24 that Constable Keneally had made an incorrect statement about the matters relating to Mr Moore but that no criminal charges would be brought against him despite an innocent man being wrongfully arrested and placed into weeks of solitary confinement.
The admissions were made by a nervous-sounding Inner West Commander, Superintendent Sam Crisafulli, in a phone call to Mr Moore in the early evening of October 24, a few hours after True Crime News Weekly published posts on our social media channels over the weekend about our intention to report on this story.
“We’ve concluded the investigation and I’ve sustained one finding against Constable Keneally that he did not act with due care and diligence in making that statement,” Superintendent Crisafulli said in the phone call.
“There will be internal management action taken in regards to that issue.
“We’re not proceeding criminally.”
Superintendent Crisafulli then quickly hung up on Mr Moore when questioned why criminal charges were not being brought against Constable Keneally.
The seeming non-action by police after their ‘internal investigation’ into Constable Keneally is perhaps yet another reason why a proper independent complaints system with real investigatory powers needs to be instituted that has oversight of NSW Police.
Mr Moore – who is the founder of website isuepolice.com that has been set up to launch legal action on behalf of victims of police harassment and strip searches – had called Constable Keneally while he was manning the general duties line at Newtown Police Station as part of his campaign to alert police that their use of strip searches on members of the public constitutes illegal harassment.
Mr Moore had earlier that day called a number of police stations across Sydney and regional NSW to inform them of his advocacy campaign and to warn police that their continued use of strip searches without a reasonable basis was illegal.
WATCH & LISTEN TO NSW POLICE CONFIRM TO LUKE MOORE THAT
CONSTABLE DANIEL KENEALLY “DID NOT ACT WITH DUE CARE & DILIGENCE”
Mr Moore claims he has been a target of alleged police harassment in Goulburn and elsewhere ever since he beat charges that he stole over $2 million from St George Bank between 2010-2012 when the bank’s own internal errors allowed him to withdraw more money from his bank account than he had in it while he was on Centrelink benefits and aged just 21-years-old.
Despite pleading not guilty to the fraud charges, Mr Moore was originally jailed for almost five years in February 2015 over the supposed fraud.
But while behind bars he began studying the law and ended up overturning the charges on appeal and was set free in December 2016.
Mr Moore successfully argued he had not engaged in any kind of inducements or illegal activity to receive the money.
Soon after his release however, in April 2017, Mr Moore himself became the victim of an illegal strip search in Goulburn and he ended up successfully suing NSW Police over their illegal actions. He claims the strip search was taken out by officers stationed at Goulburn police station angry and embarrassed that he had won his appeal just six months prior.
The experience inspired him to work towards gaining a law degree and establishing the website isuepolice.com. The illegal strip search also led to Mr Moore eventually leaving his hometown of Goulburn and moving to Nowra on NSW’s south coast.
A Melbourne production house, Princess Pictures, earlier this year purchased the film and podcast rights to Mr Moore’s amazing life tale.
The Fixated Persons Unit was established in 2017, ostensibly for counter-terrorism reasons, a few years after the 2014 Lindt Cafe Seige in Sydney’s CBD perpetrated by lone gunman, Man Haron Monis. Its apparent stated goal was to stop people from engaging in serious crime or terrorism and who are showing warning signs of dangerous extremism, possibly because of a mental illness.
The Fixated Persons Unit has come under the microscope following its use earlier this year by the recently resigned and allegedly corrupt NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, to arrest Friendlyjordies producer, Kristo Langker, for simply asking him journalistic questions. Last month, it was revealed in court, the unit was set upon Mr Langker even though he had not been assessed by a panel to determine if he was indeed actually fixated in any way.
True Crime News Weekly will soon also be publishing a major exclusive investigation into how the Fixated Persons Unit has been recently used to prevent a whistleblower calling out widespread and endemic corruption at a Southern Highlands Council, which also has several close links to Barilaro.
Let’s make one thing very clear.
Mr Moore in alleging that NSW Police have been engaging in widespread sexual abuse of children and adults through the constant use of illegal strip searches is a view held across the community, with media reports in recent years detailing the horrific stories of teenagers and children as young as 10 made to take off all their clothes for the benefit of leery officers. Indeed, in 2019, the state’s police watchdog itself, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, stated that strip searches conducted without legal justification “may well be indecent assaults”.
A report released in 2019 by researchers at the University of NSW found that since 2006, the use of strip searches by NSW police had increased twentyfold.
Meanwhile, statistics released by NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge found that over a four year period ending in June 2018, NSW Police’s use of strip searches had increased by 47%.
Mr Moore may not be fixated, but one could suggest it is instead NSW Police and its Commissioner, Mick Fuller, who are wholly fixated on harassing the public, including children, with their continued use of strip searches as well as sniffer dogs without due reason while also being fixated on stopping any valid public criticism about their activities.
True Crime News Weekly has elected to publish the audio and video of Mr Moore’s interactions with police on the grounds of clear public interest and in the hope that the activities of the Fixated Persons Unit soon come under the gaze of a parliamentary inquiry as it seems there is now a clear pattern of the unit being used to harass and intimidate members of the public and the media truthfully speaking about corruption.
Mr Moore is now planning on suing Constable Keneally and NSW Police for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution and fabricating evidence. Constable Keneally has also been subpoenaed to appear as a witness later this week at Mr Moore’s trial at Nowra Local Court for breaking the police station’s clock while he was wrongfully under police custody.
True Crime News Weekly contacted Senator Keneally to ask whether she was disappointed in the actions of her police officer son and whether she encouraged lying about serious matters, as her son is alleged to have done. We also asked whether the general public could trust her son to be an upstanding police officer. We did not receive a response.
A repeat of what happened to Philip Arantz!
Great website. Love your work. Civil liberties matter.
This is an amazing story. Was the recording retrieved from the cloud, or was it still on the phone/laptop after police returned it? It’s so good that he has the proof. Without it, he’d be stuffed. Our country is so close to fascism now, it’s really disturbing.