92
1. He
MacLennan, Lindsay and Mrs. Elliott's allegations should have rung an alarm bell in the Attorney General's should have lent his mind to the possibility that the MacLennan investigation might be coloured by the over-zealousness of the SIU Officers because of their resentment towards MacLennan arising from the Yuen Long incident. Contrast the Attorney General's view on Quinn as recorded in a minute to the Governor dated 1 February 1980, shortly after MacLennan's death:-75
"I have always (my emphasis) been unhappy about the employment of Quinn in this Unit. He is the Officer referred to in the telegram you received from the Ambassador in Bangkok... He, I believe, has an animus against homosexuals. You will recollect that following my discussion with you on this and associated matters last November after the Bangkok telegram, I spoke to DCP who was of the opinion that it would be impolitic to move Quinn out of the Rockcorry Squad. Quinn was however spoken to by DCP very sternly in relation to his "offer" of indemnity to Duffy, and it was DCP's opinion that he would behave thereafter."
I therefore do not accept the Attorney General's stance that he was satisfied that Quinn would not behave improperly simply because Moor took a tighter control of the Unit.
156. In my view, with the Attorney General's reservations about Quinn, he should have at least asked Mr. Moor to ascertain the truthfulness of Fulton's allegation or alerted Mr. Justice Macdougall and/or Mr. Duffy with
view to ensuring that the evidence against MacLennan had been properly obtained. There is no evidence that the Attorney General did either. The Attorney General's omission was however not improperly motivated.
157. Assuming that the Attorney General did inquire into Mrs. Elliott's and Lindsay's complaints of the alleged "set-up" in December 1979, either by making some investigation of his own or by referring it to Moor or CAPO,what effect (if any) would there be to the prosecution of MacLennan? My view is that it would probably have delayed his arrest for a short time. I have already found that Fulton was not asked to introduce a homosexual friend to MacLennan to commit a homosexual act but merely to assess the latter's reaction. In any case Fulton refused to do whatever he thought he was asked to do. There is no evidence to suggest that the SIU had made similar approaches to others in order to obtain information on MacLennan through improper means. I have also stated that the emergence of Peter, whose statement was the first concrete evidence SIU ever had in relation to MacLennan, did not result from any improper interest in MacLennan. Quinn put pressure on Liu Man in the hope of obtaining some intelligence on the homosexual scene generally. Liu Man happened to know Peter and the names of John and Colin came from Peter quite unsolicited. After the emergence of this credible lead, the police investigation which followed was properly conducted except for some improprieties in the handling of the male prostitutes. For these reasons, even if there had been an investigation of Fulton's allegation of attempted "set-up" and its findings made known to the Attorney General, it still would be proper for him to decide to proceed with the prosecution of MacLennan.
158. I find that the charges to be preferred against MacLennan were properly brought, though the Attorney General should have exercised greater caution in the light of the Fulton allegation and his own reservations about Quinn.
75 See Attorney General's statement, Annex 18.