A DISGRACED detective banished from Victoria Police is now a security boss at Melbourne Airport.

Former Special Operations Group Leader, Kerry McNamara

Kerry McNamara was sacked from the police force amid claims he bashed, robbed and stole drugs from dealers in Melbourne.

However Victoria Police and three other agencies later cleared him for a vital airport security pass because he had no criminal convictions.

Mr McNamara is divisional manager for ISS, an international company that provides security at the terminals of most airlines at Tullamarine. Its work includes operating passenger scanning sections and transport gate checkpoints.

Mr McNamara has an aviation security identification card, despite a police internal investigation that was highly critical of him.

Melbourne Airport said yesterday ASIC cards are issued after checks with Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, the Federal Department of Transport and ASIO.

The Victoria Police disciplinary report on Mr McNamara branded him unethical and disgraceful.

The damning report stated: "You have consistently assaulted members of the public, stolen their money and stolen any drug material you found on them.

"Your behaviour has been without regard for the law or the rights of members of the public and has been completely unethical."

Mr McNamara did not appear before a police disciplinary hearing into the allegations. He was sacked from Victoria Police in late 1998.

He never faced criminal charges because there was no reasonable prospect of securing a conviction.

He was earlier thrown out of the police Special Operations Group amid claims of bastardisation, in which recruits were allegedly shocked with a stun gun and paint balls shot at their bare buttocks.

Mr McNamara also organised the costly Tasty nightclub raid of 1994, which cost the force $10 million in compensation after 450 patrons were strip-searched.

And a gunman who wounded a policeman in 1999 later claimed he had opened fire on the officer because he did not want to be handed over to Mr McNamara.

Mr McNamara's involvement in airport security continues two years after the Federal Government approved tough measures, including tighter background checks on airport staff, after recommendations by British airport security expert Sir John Wheeler.

Mr McNamara said the allegations were old news and it was "strange" they had emerged now.
"This was dealt with 10 years ago. I passed all my probity checks at both state and federal level. I don't see what the issue is," he said.

ISS chief executive officer Charles Blinkworth said Mr McNamara had never been charged, and he believed he had not been sacked by Victoria Police but had quit.

"From my understanding, he resigned," he said.

Mr Blinkworth said Mr McNamara had been with ISS for six years and would have gone through the most rigid of checks before being given airport security clearance.

"There are very stringent tests. They don't pass them out lightly," he said.

"There's never been an issue with (Mr McNamara). He's very good. He's had a commendation for some very good work. A lot of it's just hearsay.

"We want to be transparent. There's nothing hidden."

The Herald Sun reported in December 2000 that Mr McNamara was sacked in late 1998. A police spokesman said then he was "dealt with swiftly".

"We followed all procedures. The bottom line is, he was dismissed from the police force," spokesman Kevin Loomes said.

A spokesman for Melbourne Airport said yesterday anyone who wanted to work for a security company had to apply to Victoria Police's licensing services division.

The person would then have to go through an aviation security identification card check involving state police, the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Transport and Regional Services, and ASIO, he said.

Victoria Police said its criminal checks were done against state and national databases in order to determine if job applicants had convictions.

A spokesman said the organisation did not check on character.

He said if someone had been sacked for poor behaviour, it was up to the new employer to check their references or to obtain the opinions of previous bosses.

A DoTaRS spokesman said it would be inappropriate for it to comment on questions relating to Mr McNamara based on "claims or allegations" about criminal behaviour.

"Questions relating to his employment, his performance, or alleged criminal background are matters for his employer and, where appropriate, the police," the spokesman said.

"Screening is overseen at airports by screening authorities.

"These screening authorities are specified by the secretary of the department.

"The screening authorities are responsible for the employment of screeners at airports."

Source: Herald Sun

Other Information:

WALSH STREET POLICE SHOOTINGS - How it all fits together;

The Walsh Street police shootings was the execution-style murder of Victoria Police Officers Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre who were gunned down in suburban Walsh Street, South Yarra, Australia on 12 October 1988.

Four men, Victor Peirce, Trevor Pettingill, Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy were charged with murder and later acquitted by the Supreme Court of Victoria. Two other suspects, Jedd Houghton and Gary Abdallah were shot and killed by Victoria Police before being brought to trial.

In 2005, Wendy Peirce, widow of the accused Victor Peirce, gave an interview to media detailing how her late husband had orchestrated the murders.

On 11 October, 1988, Peirce's best friend, Graeme Jensen, was shot and killed by police in Narre Warren whilst visiting a local lawnmower repair store. Jensen had been under observation by the Victoria Police Armed Robbery Squad, who had planned to arrest him in connection with a murder. When detectives attempted to affect the arrest, one of the police cars was delayed in traffic, allowing Jensen to attempt to escape. Police shot and killed Jensen at the scene.

On October 12, thirteen hours later, Constables Tynan and Eyre were operating a divisional van from Prahran police station when called to an abandoned Holden Commodore left in Walsh Street, South Yarra. While the officers were examining the vehicle, they were ambushed by armed offenders. Constable Tynan was cut down with a shotgun while sitting in the car, and Constable Eyre was seriously wounded. Constable Eyre, despite suffering serious injuries, struggled with the attacker until another person approached him from behind and managed to remove Eyre's service revolver from its holster and shoot him in the head with it.

Police believe members of a Melbourne underworld gang had organised the murders. In the two-year period up to April 1989 there were eleven fatal shootings by police. The execution-style killings of the two police officers was thought by many to have been a payback by prominent members of the Melbourne underworld.

The police investigation was known as the Ty-Eyre Task Force, a combination of the two surnames of the officers killed. It was headed by Detective John Noonan and was the biggest investigation Victoria Police had ever undertaken at the time and also the longest running, spanning 895 days. At the height of the investigation, police had hundreds of officers assigned to the task force to investigate the murders, and diverted resources from other major investigations at the time.

Police investigations revealed the shotgun used to perform the murders was the same weapon used earlier in a bungled attempt to blast open a bank door during a robbery at the State Bank in Oak Park seven months earlier.

A gang police dubbed The Flemington Crew had robbed at least four Melbourne banks. The robbers bungled the Oak Park robbery and left shotgun shells at the scene. The shells became the single forensic link police had, linking the shells to the same shotgun used in the Walsh Street murders.

Members of the gang responsible for the robberies were believed to be Victor Peirce, Graeme Jensen, Jedd Houghton and Peter David McEvoy.

The home of Victor Peirce was raided the day following the Walsh Street shootings. Peirce's house was demolished and the backyard dug up in the search for evidence.

The trial of the 4 men accused, Victor Peirce, Trevor Pettingill, Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy, began in March 1991. The prosecution alleged 6 people were involved in the planning of the shootings, Victor Pierce, Trevor Pettingill, Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy, Jason Ryan and Jedd Houghton.

Jason Ryan became a prosecution witness in the trial and was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony.

Police placed Ryan under the witness protection program and removed him to Mansfield on 24 October, 1988 for questioning, with his evidence changing many times over the course of time between the shootings and the trial.

Ryan's evidence had implicated Gary Abdallah, Jedd Houghton, Anthony Leigh Farrell, Emmanuel Alexandris. Police were told the party of killers were Jedd Houghton, Peter David McEvoy, Anthony Leigh Farrell and his uncles Victor Peirce and Trevor Pettingill.

Abdallah and Houghton were later shot and killed in police raids.

All 4 men charged with the murders were acquitted in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Victor Peirce and Peter David McEvoy were taken into custody on other charges, yelling "We'll be killed, we'll be killed". Victor claimed after his acquittal that he was afraid of police retribution and issued a statement in which he professed his innocence and requested "to be left alone to work and prove to the community I am not as bad as police and the press has made me out to be."

Timeline:

25 March, 1987 - Mark Militano is shot and killed by Victoria Police.
5 June, 1987 - Frank Valastro is shot and killed by Victoria Police.
1 October, 1988 - Hai Foong Yap was shot by Steven Tynan during a robbery, ending up a paraplegic
11 October, 1988 - Graeme Jensen is killed
12 October, 1988 - Walsh Street killings occur
24 October, 1988 - Jason Ryan moved to Mansfield and placed under witness protection
17 November, 1988 - Jedd Houghton shot and killed by police in a Bendigo caravan park
9 April, 1989 - Gary Abdallah is shot and killed by Victoria Police after allegedly pulling an imitation pistol on detectives.
1 May, 2002 - Victor Peirce shot and killed in Bay Street, Port Melbourne in drive-by shooting.
October, 2005 - Widow of Victor Peirce, Wendy Peirce gives an interview to Australian media detailing her husband's involvement in the crime

On the 17th November, 1988, Kerry McNamara, performs the high risk raid at Bendigo Caravan Park.

Special Operations Group Officers are looking for Jed Houghton.  Wanted for the murder of Victoria Police Officers, Steven Tynan and Damien Eyre and believed to be one of the 'trigger men'.

Houghton allegedly pulls a hand gun on McNamara and is shot with 12 gauge shot gun SG rounds and killed.

Hand picked for the task, McNamara takes care of Victoria Police's dirty work.

Originally from the Australia Special Air Services (S.A.S)  in W.A., McNamara is recruited into the Victoria Police Force to train Special Operations Group members.

A hard man for a hard job - No possibility of failing at trial on this one.   A loud warning and reminder to the 'criminal underworld' not to kill police officers.  If you do, you can expect a visit in the night from the Men in Black.  

Villian or hero - You decide?

Certainly no place for poor old Kerry in Victoria Polices 'politically correct touchy feely girly Force'

Source: 

Webmaster

Acknowledgements:

"Why I Lied to Protect the Walsh Street Killers" -  John Silvester The Age October 1, 2005

"Walsh Street"  - Tom Noble

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