EXCLUSIVE: A secret statutory declaration filed by one of the five officers accused of lying to the courts about the racist TRG awards shows the officer later admitted to personally creating slide shows with racist images between 2015 and 2022 – directly contradicting the Office of the ICAC’s assertions the racist awards stopped in 2015 – while raising further questions about why none of the officers have been charged for providing false statements to the court.

Meacham King, former TRG member and current Senior Sergeant in charge of the NT Police’s dog unit, swore his third statement to the Coroner on May 1, 2024, following two previous stat decs in which he had denied the Noogudah award had any racial connotation.

It is unclear why the third sworn statement, obtained by the NT Independent, was not included in the public list of evidence provided to the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.

It is understood from numerous sources that Mr King refused to be interviewed as part of the ICAC investigation into the false stat decs and the creation of the racist awards and that neither the police or the ICAC compelled his evidence.

In his first statutory declaration, dated February 28 – the day after former constable Zach Rolfe revealed the awards’ existence – Mr King wrote: “None of the awards have any connotation to race. The awards are not meant to be offensive”.

Mr King wrote in the secret May statement three months later that his previous statements reflected his “recollection and knowledge” at the time, but that after seeing documented evidence of the award certificates – including material “located on a personal drive…(on our work system) of a former police officer” – he now believed the “language used in some of these awards is racist, offensive and inexcusable”, but that it was all “dark humour” that was “never intended to become public”.

It was not explained how Mr King saw evidence collected from officers’ computers as part of the investigation.

He also admitted in the May statement that he was present during the period the racist award certificates were handed out and that he personally created PowerPoint presentations for the awards when they moved to electronic-only form in 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 – which directly refutes conclusions in the ICAC’s report that all racist awards ceased in 2015.

“From 2015, it was changed to a p-point presentation…” Mr King wrote. “No actual certificates were issued anymore, it was just a presentation with images/writing etc.

“Most of the slides within these p-points were created by myself with input from others…”

Those slides included a graphic depicting an old racist minstrel show with a white man in black face, with the words, “winner Nugeda award” on it. The NT Independent understands Mr King was also involved in the production of other material, photos and videos of the award ceremonies that were obtained as part of the ICAC’s investigation, but have not yet been made public.

Sources have also told this masthead that Mr King did not speak to the ICAC during its investigation, but it remains unclear why the ICAC did not compel him to talk, given that he produced the award ceremony slide shows and had filed an affidavit claiming the Noogudah award had no racial connotation.

The investigation, called Operation Beaufort, 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”.

It was revealed in the investigation report finalised by ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly last month that commissioner Michael Riches had pledged not to name any of the officers he spoke to about the awards, making their evidence inadmissible in court, and also surprisingly pledged not to make any adverse findings against the five officers for misleading the court before collecting evidence.

Despite evidence that showed the officers had lied in their statements – “thereby constituting potential criminal conduct” – the ICAC could not pursue any charges due to Mr Riches’ assurances to others who provided evidence as part of the investigation.

It was never explained why all five officers were not directly questioned about the accuracy of their statements against the evidence made public through the inquest, including an award certificate with an Aboriginal flag as a backdrop, the blackface graphic, as well as one award for the “most coon-like BBQ ever” and another Noogudah award given to a drunk officer for displaying the “utmost level of Aboriginality while being an elite member of the TR[G]”.

The ICAC’s investigation was run jointly with the NT Police executive, overseen by Deputy Commissioner Martin Dole. Ms Kelly said in her report the investigation was run jointly because “the OICAC is not resourced to conduct an ongoing wide-ranging investigation into racism within the NTPF”.

Nevertheless, she also concluded that “after a thorough investigation which included analysis of a huge quantity of data stored on the NTPF [server] there has been no further evidence of any racist material produced after 2015”.

Police sources told the NT Independent the evidence uncovered during the ICAC investigation that directly refutes the officers’ statements is substantial, including up to six terabytes of images, videos and other material from the annual award ceremonies dating back 15 years.

Mr King has been part of a recent NT Police PR blitz to repair the damage to the organisation’s reputation as a result of the racist Noogudah awards coming to light, appearing on Mix 104.9 days before the ICAC’s report was released last month to role play with staff as part of a TRG training exercise in which Mix staff pretended to be politicians abducted by terrorists. Mr King has also appeared on commercial radio with puppies being trained as part of the dog unit recently.

Neither Mr King or Alice Springs Southern Commander James Gray-Spence, nor any of the other three senior officers – Craig Garland, Shaun Gil and Mark Clemmons – were suspended while the ICAC completed its flawed investigation.

The decision not to pursue any further action against the five senior officers has caused deep division in the NT Police ranks, with many who respect the officers for their previous work having to reconcile their pasts with the crime of committing perjury and the impression that the police executive covered up their alleged crimes by dropping all investigations and taking no internal disciplinary action.

Concerns have also been raised by officers about the five senior members still training and supervising junior staff – including Mr King as recently as last month – and holding senior positions they say are untenable after the officers signed false statements.

NT Police’s counsel at the inquest, Ian Freckelton, who organised the five statements, would not say last week why those specific five officers were chosen to provide stat decs, if Police Commissioner Michael Murphy instructed him to use them and if he was aware their statements were inaccurate and amounted to perjury before they were submitted.

Mr King did not respond to phone calls and questions about his involvement in the awards.