ActivePaper Archive Ex-cop accused of bid to give tip-off - The West Australian , 1/15/2011

NEO-NAZI INVESTIGATION

Ex-cop accused of bid to give tip-off

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Charged: Robert Critchley leaves court yesterday. Picture: Lee Griffith

A former police officer who worked in the phone intercept unit has been charged after he allegedly attempted to warn a man that he was under surveillance as part of a secret investigation into the Perth branch of international neo-nazi outfit Combat 18.

Robert David Critchley, 42, appeared in Perth Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and unlawful use of a police computer.

Police alleged he tried to tell Jacob Marshall Hort that his mobile phone was being monitored.

Hort, of High Wycombe, is reportedly part of the Perth branch of race-hate group Combat 18, which is known for being behind the bombings of Asian communities in London in the 1990s.

Hort was convicted in July of criminal damage and discharging a firearm during an incident in which several shots were fired at the Queens Park Suleymaniye Mosque, causing $15,000 damage.

Mr Critchley, of Ocean Reef, was attached to the State intelligence division in January last year when it is alleged he made attempts to tell Hort he was the target of a police investigation into Combat 18’s activities.

It is also alleged that between May 2009 and January last year he obtained details of a person through a police computer when he was not permitted to do so.

The two charges are unrelated.

Mr Critchley resigned from the police service in September after Police Minister Rob Johnson approved a recommendation from Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan that he be removed.

Mr Critchley previously worked as a police officer in Britain and was a WA police officer for six years.

He was not required to plead yesterday and has been released on bail to appear in court in April. Mr Critchley broke into a sprint to avoid waiting media when he left the court. Combat 18 was formed in Britain in 1991 and has links to the far-right British Nationalist Party. It is not known when the group started in Perth but it is believed police began monitoring members’ activities in late 2009.