A Channel Nine journalist who spoke at length to serial rapist Antonio “Tony” Loguancio during a 43-hour siege which ended in his death exploited a dangerous situation, a Victorian coroner has found.
In March 2013 Loguancio died from self-inflicted gunshots after failing to hand himself into police who had a warrant for his arrest for attacking his partner.
While holed up in a bungalow in Glenroy in Victoria, Loguancio called Nine chief of staff Kate McGrath and spoke to her for 54 minutes.
McGrath then called him back and they had several conversations during the two-day standoff with police, during which the violent criminal told her he was going to shoot himself.
“I accept that the involvement of McMcGrath was not at her initiation but at his,” coroner Audrey Jamieson said in a finding handed down on Thursday in the Victorian coroner’s court. “Nonetheless it amounted to an opportunistic exploitation of a significant police incident executed by Ms McGrath without any consideration for the fact that she may be compromising police endeavours to have Tony surrender himself.”
Jamieson said the journalist’s conversations were conducted “to the exclusion of negotiators and limited their already precarious ability to engage and negotiate with Tony”.
“To Ms McGrath’s credit she did contact police after her extensive conversation with Tony and spoke to Sergeant Tomlinson who was one of the designated negotiators at the time,” Jamieson said.
McGrath told police Loguancio said he was going to kill himself and asked for advice on how to handle him. Tomlinson told the coroner he advised the journalist not to interfere and to leave it up to police.
Tomlinson said in his evidence: “I felt at this stage that the intervention by the media was detrimental to any positive outcome that I was trying to obtain.
“I could not believe that they were speaking to him for that long and the fact that they were even speaking to him in the first place.”
The coroner found McGrath’s evidence contradicted Tomlinson’s in that he insisted he told her not to call the fugitive again. Jamieson said she gave more weight to the policeman’s evidence.
The coroner said the involvement of the media in the siege “demonstrated the capacity of the of the media to disrupt an active police operation” and warranted a review by media regulatory authorities.
However, she stopped short of finding McGrath contributed to the man shooting himself. “I find that the Nine Network’s involvement with Tony during the siege was inappropriate and disruptive to the police operation but was not of itself causative to the outcome,” she said.
A spokesman for Nine said the Nine Network accepted the findings of the coroner. “We take our responsibilities as a broadcaster very seriously and would never seek to disrupt a police investigation,” he said.
“We immediately notified and sought guidance from police. We maintain that our staff acted in a responsible manner at all times and are pleased that the coroner found that the actions of our staff were in no way a causative factor in the outcome.”
The inquiry also heard from police witnesses that in general the media’s portrayal of Loguancio as “mad dog” Tony agitated him and made the situation worse.
At one stage the police media unit asked the media to “tone down” their coverage and the police told the coroner the media sensationalised the information they gave them.
Jamieson recommended that in future the media unit should contact media outlets to correct any false or misleading reports where it is deemed to be “unnecessarily inflaming” a situation.
The coroner ruled that the failure of police to achieve a peaceful surrender was not the fault of the police or the media but of Loguancio, who was given every opportunity to turn himself in.
• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; SuicideCall Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78
