ActivePaper Archive Officer told Mallard to hold on to jewellery gift - The West Australian , 8/23/2007

Officer told Mallard to hold on to jewellery gift

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Andrew Mallard

An undercover policeman investigating the 1994 murder of jeweller Pamela Lawrence admitted yesterday giving suspect Andrew Mallard a piece of jewellery and telling him at the end of a three-day covert surveillance operation to hold on to it.

When questioned by Corruption and Crime Commission lawyer Peter Quinlan about where he got the jewellery, the officer, codenamed “Gary”, said he was almost certain he had found it on the floor of a Fremantle hotel room where they were staying.

On tapes from a body-wire worn by Gary, the officer is heard to ask Mr Mallard to identify a piece of jewellery, to which Mr Mallard replies “cheap costume jewellery”. Gary tells Mr Mallard to “hold on to it”.

Gary told the hearing that he was “just inquisitive” and had picked up the item and shown it to Mr Mallard.

Mr Quinlan questioned Gary as to why the gift was not recorded in the operation’s running sheet, which included details such as the cost of meals and items he had bought.

Gary’s lawyer, Graeme Pidcoe, said the officer knew there was an audio recording which would provide a record of the exchange.

Gary denied a suggestion that he was referring to the jewellery when he told the operation controller, codenamed M1, that “you might find that thing on him” when police picked up Mr Mallard after the operation. He said he was referring to a 30cm Bowie knife Mr Mallard had with him.

The hearing was told that a young man, Timothy Urquhart, made a statement to police about seeing Mr Mallard with a gold wattle-like pin just over two hours after Gary had been extracted from the operation.

Witness Rosemary Lansell, a staff member at Mrs Lawrence’s shop, Flora Metallica, yesterday identified a police sketch of the pin seen by Mr Urquhart as being similar to golden wattle stick pins from the store. She said detectives were given five or six popular items of jewellery, including gold-plated wattle, from the shop during the murder inquiry but she did not know if they were returned.

M1 previously testified that he did not believe anything like that (Flora Metallica jewellery) had been given to Mr Mallard and he would have deemed it inappropriate.

In other evidence, Gary admitted giving Mr Mallard a bong which he admitted was most likely used to smoke cannabis. He denied using drugs himself but said he drove Mr Mallard around to buy cannabis.

The CCC is investigating the wrongful conviction of Mr Mallard who served 12 years jail for the murder of Mrs Lawrence but was released last year when his conviction was quashed. The inquiry continues.