EXCLUSIVE: Two senior NT Police officers who lied to the court about the existence of racist TRG awards in sworn statements were heavily involved in their making and awarding, the NT Independent can reveal, with one officer who denied the existence of a “coon of the year award” having been involved in awarding the “most coon-like BBQ” certificate in 2007, while another senior officer had his name engraved on the ‘Noogudah club’ – an improvised weapon seized from a remote community during riots that he told the court was “never linked to Indigenous people”.

The latest revelations raise more questions about the integrity and thoroughness of the Office of the ICAC’s and NT Police’s joint investigation into the lying officers and the creation of the racist awards, and follows previous reports by this masthead that showed another senior officer admitted in a secret statement to the Coroner that he produced digital awards with racist imagery between 2015 and 2022, contradicting the ICAC’s conclusion the awards ceased in 2015.

The ongoing scandal has caused deep division within the NT Police ranks, with many who respect the five officers for their previous work having to reconcile their pasts with the crime of perjury and the impression that the police executive covered up their alleged crimes by dropping all investigations and taking no internal disciplinary action.

Superintendent Shaun Gill wrote in his statutory declaration to the inquest dated February 28 – two days after Zach Rolfe revealed the existence of the racist awards at the Kumanjayi Walker inquest – that he was not aware of a “coon of the year” award and that nobody in the TRG used that sort of language.

“At no time was I aware of such an award and if I was made aware I would have stopped it,” he wrote in the sworn statement.

“I am also aware of the allegation that TRG regularly used the word ‘coon’ and ‘sand nigger’. I have not heard such language used by members of the TRG in any circumstance.”

But photos of awards publicly tendered to the court as part of the inquest process show that in 2007 – when Supt Gill was a sergeant with the TRG – two racist awards were given to two separate officers: one that said “For the most coon like BBQ ever!!” and the 2007 Noogadah Award – “for expressing your utmost level of Aboriginality while being an elite member of the TR[G]”.

The former had the Aboriginal flag colours in the text of the award, while the latter included a picture of what sources believe is a dead Indigenous man with cans of VB photoshopped around his body.

Multiple sources said Supt Gill was heavily involved in the production of those awards and presented them at the annual TRG staff party.

Supt Gill did not respond to calls and questions about his misleading statement and the evidence provided to the inquest.

Numerous sources told the NT Independent Mr Gill presented those awards and others in the years before and after with now-Superintendent Craig Garland and Senior Sergeant Meacham King. Mr King admitted to producing powerpoint presentations, including of a man in blackface, when the awards went digital between 2015 and 2022, despite first telling the court there was no racial connotation to the awards.

It is understood neither the ICAC or the police spoke to any of the three senior officers as part of the investigation dubbed Operation Beaufort, which probed the creation of the awards and the subsequent deception to the court by those three senior officers and two others – James Gray-Spence and Mark Clemmens – who all denied the awards had any racial connotation in sworn affidavits.

The report into Operation Beaufort concluded there was “no admissible evidence” to continue the investigation into the lying officers due to pledges made by ICAC Michael Riches before receiving evidence, but it has never been explained why the officers were not questioned about their statements against the evidence presented at the inquest, including the two awards from 2007 and other publicly available material.

Supt Craig Garland told the court in his sworn statement, also dated February 28, that Mr Rolfe’s assertions that there was an award given to an officer for exhibiting the “most coon-like behaviour of the year” along with a club with nails in it were untrue.

“This award simply does not exist in the TRG and the use of that word would not be tolerated,” he wrote.

He also explained that the Noogudah award was presented to the TRG officer who “displayed outstanding lack of excellence in the area of personal hygiene or feral behaviour” and the club was merely an “improvised weapon that was seized during riots in Port Keats”.

“The weapon was retained by the TRG to show new members to the unit the types of weapons that can be used during civil unrest and how the simplest of things can cause significant damage to our operators,” Supt Garland wrote.

A few lines later he claimed “this award was never linked to Indigenous people”, after earlier admitting it had been seized from a riot in Wadeye.

Supt Garland failed to mention in his statutory declaration that he was presented the award in 2011 and had his name engraved on the improvised weapon.

The NT Independent has also confirmed from numerous sources that Supt Garland created and personally awarded a Noogudah certificate with the Aboriginal flag as a backdrop to another officer in 2013, which said “Caution for a rape…that’s all that needs to be said”.

The recipient of the award has also never been contacted by the ICAC or NT Police as part of the investigation.

Supt Garland hung up on the NT Independent when reached by phone.

Officers did ‘good things’, but are failing to accept responsibility for misleading the court: Source

The joint NT Police/ICAC investigation had two functions: to uncover whether members of the Territory Response Group issued racist awards, “thereby constituting improper conduct on the part of those members” under the ICAC Act; and whether the statutory declarations submitted by the five officers knowingly “contained false information”, which could constitute “criminal conduct and/or improper conduct”.

But Mr Riches told Police Commissioner Michael Murphy a day after launching the probe in a March letter that he did not intend to hold any officers personally responsible for the awards.

ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly, who finished the report into the investigation, stated the Office of the ICAC had evidence which contradicted the officers’ statements, but was unable to use that evidence due to Mr Riches’ assurances to others who provided evidence to keep their identities confidential.

It is understood the investigation uncovered up to six Terabytes of evidence taken off NT Police computers that contained videos, images and other material dating back 15 years.

However, images of the racist 2007 awards, and the 2013 award with the Aboriginal flag, were released publicly through the inquest.

Supt Garland, who is understood to be on extended leave from the NT Police, did not respond to questions sent after he hung up, including what he meant when he wrote that “the greatest lesson from these awards, is to accept your mistakes, own them, learn from them and ensure that they do not happen again.”

None of the five officers have publicly accepted their role in producing the awards or lying under oath to the court. Mr Murphy has also refused to acknowledge the evidence that his officers lied and their breach of the public’s trust, stating repeatedly that the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker was ongoing and he was “cooperating with the process”.

Inquest hearings wrapped up last week. The Coroner is not expected to make any findings in relation to the officers who lied to the court.

One police source with knowledge of the ICAC investigation told the NT Independent that the five officers who lied about the awards had accomplished “good things” while officers, “but the consequences of those decisions [to provide false sworn statements] must be dealt with in the exact same manner as any civilian who has been found to have provided false stat decs or committed perjury”.