72
7.
At this point he was again formally warned that a breach of the Official Secrets Act was a very serious offenced thai if he repeated this classified information he could find himself in very serious trouble."
Having seen the administration file, Ross and Mansell discussed the manner in which the vetting system should be organized and a new system was devised by them. During the discussion, Blackburn came in to Mansell's office and asked Ross to go to see him after they had finished their discussion, which Ross did. Ross told Blackburn about the new system and he approved. Blackburn asked Ross if in fact there was anything known about MacLennan. Ross said as far as he was aware there was nothing known. Blackburn then asked Ross if he could go and have a check made to see whether in fact there was anything known about MacLennan being a homosexual. Ross said he would, and he took this as an order from Blackburn. Ross said in evidence:-10
8.
"Certainly John (i.e. MacLennan) was not in line for promotion, but I think, I cannot quite recall, I think Mr. Blackburn wanted to have it clear in his own mind whether or not the dismissal and/or reinstatement had been justified, but he did not, I do not recall that he said so in so many words, but that is the impression I got that he wanted to be he wanted to satisfy himself as to whether or not the action taken against John MacLennan had been justified.”
About January 1979, Ross verbally informed Brooks that Blackburn of Police Headquarters had asked him “if SIU could carry out a look at MacLennan with a view to suggesting or to reporting whether or not we would consider that he was a homosexual." Ross did not say why this was to be done, nor was vetting mentioned. Only MacLennan was to be reported on. Brooks instructed Quinn and Quinn was to relay his instructions down through the team that in the normal course of their intelligence gathering if information came in about MacLennan, Brooks should be personally informed. During this period Brooks and Quinn were frequently “out in the field” and were incidentally "keeping a vigil" in case any information on MacLennan came in. However they had little to report and reached the conclusion that there was no evidence that MacLennan was homosexual: hence Quinn's report of 9 February 1979 referred to below (see para. 11). No one was instructed to ask specifically about MacLennan, but information was "volunteered at the bars”. Quinn said, "It was a low key type of enquiry; we were not enquiring into him; we were literally listening for any information coming to us at that time.”11
9.
Quinn thought that it might be that Senior Officers thought in view of the Yuen Long affair and as they now had a specialized unit (i.e. the SIU), it might be interesting or fair to check MacLennan out. 12 Ross asked Quinn to establish whether MacLennan was a homosexual-hence paragraph 26 of Report of 9 February 1979.13 In making the Report, Quinn had questioned Duffy and possibly also Graham about MacLennan.
10. Brooks was seeing Fulton at the time, but Fulton and Duffy were not asked about MacLennan14 and Brooks could not recall being asked to vet any Police Officers except MacLennan.
11.
On 9 February 1979, in a long report submitted by Quinn on Ross' instruction and entitled "Further Report— Operation Rockcorry Investigation into Homosexual Practices” (Ref. SCB/MRB 133/78), there was a short reference to MacLennan (para. 26) that "no evidence had surfaced to indicate that MacLennan is associated with any homosexual fraternity and the only suspicion against him is the Yuen Long incident in the N.T." It went on to say that Mrs. Elliott was fully conversant with the circumstances of his "dismissal" and reinstatement and she and one other person had mentioned that the incident "afforded an embarrassment both to the Governor and the Hong Kong Government. This had widely circulated throughout the legal profession fraternity." Later Ross telephoned Blackburn to say nothing was known about MacLennan. But Blackburn never saw Quinn's report of 9 February 1979.
12.
The evidence of Blackburn and Mansell on the one hand and that of Ross on the other are in conflict in the following respect. Mansell agrees in evidence that the initiative of contacting Ross as to vetting came from him since Blackburn asked him to "sort out the nuts and bolts and putting such a system into effect." Mansell however disagrees (1) that he indicated the circumstances surrounding MacLennan's dismissal and reinstatement, or (2) that it was he who produced the administration file on MacLennan to Ross of his own initiative.15 He also said he never received a telephone call from Ross to say there was nothing known about MacLennan.16 As far as Blackburn's evidence is concerned, he could not recall having asked Ross to check whether MacLennan was a homosexual.17 He was of the opinion that it would be unfair to mount a particular investigation into MacLennan after his reinstatement. 18
!
8 See Transcript page 8409.
9 See Transcript page 8410. 10 See Transcript page 8410.
11 See Transcript pages 7818-7820.
12 See Transcript pages 7598-7600.
13 See Transcript pages 6851-6852.
14 See Transcript page 7820.
15
See Transcript pages 8756-8758, 8766-8767.
16 See Transcript page 8775.
17
See Transcript pages 8823, 8871-8874.
18
See Transcript page 8875.
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