888
68
for
expressed the view that a proven practising homosexual places himself in a position whereby it is highly undes him to continue in service in the Police Force. He quite frankly accepts that whilst the absence of a formal policy is an omission it is not a deliberate one.
L.
USE OF INFORMERS BY THE SIU23
76. As is normal with most types of criminal investigations, each informer used by the Special Investigation Unit comes under one or more particular police officers (known as handlers), part of whose duties it is to establish confidence with the informer. Great care is therefore taken if another officer is required to take over as a handler. A handler has also to consider the possibility that an informer might give information which he thinks the handler requires, or, withholds information which might put him at risk. Because of the high degree of confidentiality, no notes are kept of interviews and police notebooks are sparingly, if ever, used. Any notes of interviews made would be destroyed after the appropriate reports had been completed. However there should always be a contemporaneous record kept in a separate report.
77.
There were three police officers who acted as informers for the SIU. The principal one was Senior Inspector Michael Fulton.24 The other two gave very little information and their services to the SIU were brief.
M. VETTING OF PERSONNEL GENERALLY
78.
At the end of 1978 Personnel Branch of the Police extended its vetting process in respect of recommendation for promotion or award to include a check with CID Headquarters. The checks would cover such fields as narcotics, triad involvement, gambling, loan sharking and also homosexuality.25 The vetting file was seen by Mr. Henry for information only; it was not a file seeking any form of direction or prosecution or further action at all. Henry was concerned that the file contained unsubstantiated allegations. 26
79.
In 1980 Mr. Moor personally instructed Mr. Blackburn in charge of Personnel that he must ensure that thereafter candidates for promotion or awards were vetted for homosexuality.27
80.
In 1979, a defect in the system existed. In the vetting file, Mr. Morrin who was Director of Special Branch said (on 7 June 1979) some of the allegations were extremely vague. He wrote that unless there was much stronger evidence which was not recorded here, "I would caution against including the names of those concerned in any list of alleged homosexuals." On 8 July 1979 Henry, the Commissioner of Police, minuted that persons against whom there were unsubstantiated allegations were not to be listed as alleged homosexuals and he instructed Deputy commissioner of Police (Administration) and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) to personally ensure that such categorization was undertaken accurately.28 On 30 January 1980, Superintendent Brooks minuted to Mr. Clancy and referred to those two minutes. The file was subsequently "de-activated" by Chief Superintendent Ross.
N. RECORDS IN THE SIU
81.
In order to ascertain the motive of SIU actions, an exhaustive examination of all SIU records was conducted by Mr. Li Kwan-ha, Deputy Director of Criminal Investigations, on the instruction of Mr. Moor given at the request of the Commission (see Chapter 1). I am satisfied that Mr. Li is a man of ability and integrity, and his examination was both thorough and fair-minded.
82.
In the end, the Commission discovered nothing that required consideration under the Terms of Reference.
23
See evidence of Quinn.
24
25
Fulton himself did not come under police investigation because he was a valuable informer who was giving useful information to the SIU
(see Moor, Transcript page 10776).
See Transcript page 10747.
26 See Transcript pages 11490-11492.
27
See Transcript pages 10747-10748.
28
See Transcript pages 8280 et seq., 8485-8489.