To
anus,
he said, which proved conclusively that he was a habitual homosexual. photograph the dead man's anus to prove the point, yet cremate the body so that no one could check whether it was true, seemed rather disgusting. Counsel for the Police made sure that he shouted across the court the state of MacLennan's anus, in spite of the Coroner's ruling that homosexuality was not to be mentioned in evi- dence. The more disgusting was it, therefore, to find that while the police had photographs of his anus, they had not checked his hands for powder burns, nor had they made a proper check of the room for finger prints. Nor were there found any recognisable finger prints on the gun. If these facts do not prove a cover up of the cause of John's death, at least they reveal a state of mind of those who investi- gated it.
When I left Mr. Moorfoot's office on that day, I pondered the purpose of the visit. All he had done was to throw my mind into confusion by his singular effort to prove that John MacLennan was a homosexual and that he had committed suicide. I should imagine that had I interviewed potential witnesses at an inquest in the same vein, I should probably have found myself charged with interfering with witnesses. Indeed, I steered clear of anyone likely to be called as a witness at the inquest, simply because I believe it to be unlawful to do so.
When the Inquest began, there were over 80 witnesses' statements, we were told by the Coroner, but he intended to call only about half of them. The Police voiced the opinion that all eighty, including myself whom they named in the court, should be called. The Coroner overruled. I suppose we shall never know the real reasons for this apparent show of liberality by the Police, and its overruling by the Coroner. In the event, the absence of a great deal of the evidence left the Coroner's jury in such doubt that they returned an open verdict. The Coroner wanted them to reconsider their verdict, but they were adamant. They did, however, add riders which suggested that they were not at all happy about police action in the case, and they also suggested changes in the homosexual laws.
Police and Legal Department personnel were equally shaken at the
verdict. It had seemed such a cake-walk, and the Coroner had indicated clearly what verdict he expected. The witness who declared that the "suicide note" he had seen in John's room on the day of his death was not the one shown at the Inquest was dismissed by the Coroner as being"confused". All evidence suggesting that John had been especially targeted had been ruled out by the Coroner as irrelevant. No one expected, in the circumstances, that the jury would have the courage and conviction to resist the pressures and return an open verdict. But many members of the public were relieved that the jury had maintained its independence, and left the verdict open.
The obvious thing for the Attorney-General to do in the circumstances was to call for an inquiry and find out why the jury had doubts about the police version of John MacLennan's death. But he failed to do so. In fact, he did the worst possi- ble thing. He held a press conference at which he stated categorically that John MacLennan had committed suicide. Some of the reasons he gave only helped to dis- credit him. For example, he stated that a well-known pathologist, Professor Gibson, had examined the body and pronounced the death suicide. When someone reminded the
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