Police accused of ‘abandoning’ widow - June 9, 2006

South Australian police are being accused of abandoning the widow of an employee by refusing to apologise for bungles during the investigation of his death. A royal commission into the death of Ian Humphrey, a civilian police employee, criticised police for their handling of the case, finding the investigation was not undertaken appropriately, efficiently or expeditiously.

Almost a year after the commission handed down its findings, Mr Humphrey’s widow, Di Gilcrist, on Thursday said SA Police Commissioner Mal Hyde was yet to apologise to her family for police failures. “I would like for him to acknowledge what happened was totally inappropriate,” Ms Gilcrist said. “(Mr Hyde was) almost joyful after the Kapunda Road Royal Commission … found (police) not to be corrupt, but only inept and incompetent. “I found that very insulting.

“Not only was SAPOL (South Australian police) responsible for the investigation but Ian was a SAPOL member and they have just totally abandoned us. “I would like (Mr Hyde) to actually say, ‘It’s not okay for SAPOL to be inept and incompetent and I apologise for what occurred’.”

Mr Humphrey was killed in 2003 when his bicycle was struck in a hit-run incident by a car driven by prominent Adelaide lawyer Eugene McGee. McGee, a former police officer who had been drinking prior to the crash, was never breath-tested by police. He was not arrested until several hours after the crash,after the arresting officer received an order from his superior.

The officer told the commission he had intended to wait until the following day to arrest McGee. Ms Gilcrist has received an overview of SAPOL’s response to the commission’s findings, which states officers within the major crash unit have been retrained in relation to police protocols. But she called for police to release the full report of their response, saying the overview was inadequate.

“This document does not clearly indicate SAPOL have undertaken any real steps to address the operational and cultural inadequacies that resulted in the flawed investigation into my husband’s death,” she said. SA MP and victims of crime advocate Nick Xenophon said Ms Gilcrist’s request for an apology was reasonable. Mr Hyde refused to comment on Thursday.