Take Two: The Criminal Justice System Revisited
By Tim Anderson
Bantam, 1992. 376 pp. $34.95
Reviewed by John Tognolini
Tim Anderson's new book is a stunning portrait of a police vendetta and an insight into this country's criminal justice system.
"If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, 'law and order' must be second last", Anderson writes. "In recent years Australian governments and oppositions have been attempting to outdo each other in adding to police powers and penalties ...
"The total Australian police budget increased by 44 per cent, in real terms, through the 1980s. This correlates very closely with economic crisis and the failure of governments to address real social and economic problems ... The very same communities that cop economic recession the hardest are also the targets — the scapegoats — of the push for 'law and order'."
There are accounts here that will shock many people — for instance, when Tim was verballed and bashed by detective Roger Rogerson over the supposed "conspiracy" to murder Robert Cameron.
After they had spent six and a half years in prison, the case ended with pardons and $100,000 for each of the three falsely accused. However, no disciplinary action was ever taken against the police officers who carried out this action; in fact they are still holding bravery awards.
Rogerson fell from grace with the police force, but the other officers have been promoted. John Burke was chief inspector of the Special Weapons Operations Section that killed David Gundy in his Marrickville home in April 1989. The other police officer is now Superintendent Dennis Gilligan.
A close associate of Gilligan, Burke and Rogerson was a principal character in the second frame-up of Tim Anderson, Detective Inspector Aarne Tees.
On May 30, 1989, Tees arrested and charged Anderson for three counts of murder resulting from the 1978 Hilton bombing. Three months before this, Tim had embarrassed Dennis Gilligan at an international legal seminar held in Sydney. Ian Fraser, a long-time member of Prisoners Action Group, who shared a cell with Tim during his first frame-up sentence at Long Bay jail, later told me: "I was present at that altercation ... Tim merely got to his feet and said, there was a verballer in the audience who verballed a friend of his, and with that Superintendent Dennis Martin Gilligan bounced to his feet and said it was a load of Ananda Marga lies etc. He sort of gave himself up. We were instantly amused by it all. But the ramification of it in the out of the way. He became embarrassing."
Ray Denning, the former prisoner activist who had become an informer, verballed Anderson, saying that Anderson had confessed to him about the Hilton, even though prison records showed that the two of them were not in the same prison when Denning said this had occurred. This verbal was the basis for Tees charging Tim with the Hilton bombing.
After Tim was charged, Evan Pederick confessed to the Hilton bombing, saying he did it under the direction of Tim Anderson. When he made his startling confession to Queensland police, they gave him a cup of tea and drove him home.
The response of Aarne Tees was totally different; he flew north to interview Pederick. Here's an example of his technique:
"Pederick: ... and together with fifty sticks of gelignite I'd either be killed or I'd be severely injured and I thought ...
"Tees:Fifty, wouldn't be fifty, would be fifteen?
"Pederick: It wasn't fifteen, fifty's in my head.
"Tees: You couldn't fit fifty in the bin
"Pederick: There was more, more than fifteen, much more than fifteen. They're the size of candles, about that long, you know what they're like, about that wide.
"Tees: Mmm.
"Pederick: Would have been three lots about that wide taped up, so there'd probably be three times, probably only about twenty, don't know why I had fifty in my head."
On this sort of "evidence", Tim Anderson had to spend another seven and half months in the prison system. His description of being back inside prison is moving. "Jail is like a working-class boys' school gone to seed. The kids that used to throw rubbers at the teachers now knock off cars, take drugs and rob houses. They're a bit older, but a lot of the games are the same, and a lot of the kids still haven't learnt to read or write."
His vivid descriptions of overcrowded jails, violence and the backward, repressive attitude of the Corrective Services bureaucracy are damning indictments of Australian society.
The book covers not just the frame-up but also the campaign against it. From the time of his arrest, many people gathered and formed themselves into the Campaign Exposing the Frame-up of Tim Anderson, CEFTA. When he was imprisoned, the campaign swelled, organising public meetings, poster and graffiti runs, bail applications and petitions and challenging those in the media who the frame-up.
Anderson deals also with the media, in particular the role played by Janet Fife-Yeomans and Ben Hills of the Sydney Morning Herald and Channel Nine's Steve Barrett. He writes, "The power of the mass media is a formidable force: constructing our view of the world, shaping community attitudes, reflecting powerful private and state interests. It is easy to despise but difficult to ignore. To me it was chilling to sense the personal hostility of some sections of the mass media and to feel, for a time, their crusading zeal turned against me. They had created and were feeding themselves on a myth that I was some sort of powerful figure to be 'brought down'. Closer to the truth was that, for a time, I had become an easy target."
But what of the Hilton bombing itself? There should be an inquiry. I agree with Tim that it should have specific terms of reference. It shouldn't be an opportunity for the likes of Seary, Pederick, Denning and Tees to rehash or refit their accusations.
It should have as a starting point the evidence and research of former police officer Terry Griffiths, who was seriously injured in the bombing. He believes that it was a security force publicity stunt which went wrong. Neither the type of explosive nor the nature of the explosive device were ever determined, as the forensic evidence went missing. Who could have been responsible for that and got away with it?