It is a shameful secret buried in history — how from 1957 to the 1970s, Cooma jail in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains operated as a "gay prison", possibly the only facility of its kind in the world.
The intention was to isolate men convicted of homosexual offences as part of a covert government experiment to develop techniques to "cure" homosexuality.
The 8-episode podcast The Greatest Menace was released in February last year, unearthing details of the reopening of the Cooma facility as a dedicated gay prison, the use of police entrapment, and the launch of a state inquiry into the causes and treatments of homosexuality which used inmates as research subjects.
In a follow-up episode released this week, a former inmate spoke about his experience at Cooma prison for the first time.
Ex-prisoner David*, now in his 80s, was arrested in 1961 by police posing as gay men, charged with "attempt to procure active indecency with a male person", and sent to Cooma jail.
"Prison itself was terrifying, all the time," David said.
"Underneath, I sort of carried on like a normal person. But I was always terrified of it."
He was released after serving nine months of a 12-month sentence, but never recovered from his time behind bars.
He lived like a fugitive for 10 years, terrified of being arrested again, and has kept his homosexuality, and criminal record, a secret ever since.
"Being in prison for being gay, it ruined my life altogether," he said.
David contacted the podcast's producers Patrick Abboud and Simon Cunich after the release of The Greatest Menace to share his story. It is one of a number of new leads that have opened up since the podcast's release.
"Simon and I continue to work together to follow every lead that's come through," Abboud said.
"I feel like it's probably something I'm going to keep working on forever."
Time to apologise for 'dark stain on our history'
Abboud is pressing the NSW government to formally acknowledge the role that former state governments and police played in the unjust treatment of queer people which he describes as a "dark stain on our history".
"We did write to NSW Police at the very beginning, and they apologised generally for the harm done to the LGBT community, in the past" Abboud said.
"There was an apology in 2016 and 2018 [for police brutality and arrest of gay rights activists].
"But the use of police entrapment has been something that the powers that be have sort of danced around for a very long time."
Abboud said a formal apology would encourage people to come forward to have their criminal records expunged.
Homosexuality was not decriminalised in NSW until 1984.
In 2014, the Criminal Records Act 1991 was amended to allow people convicted of historical homosexual offences to apply to have their records cleared if the offence involved a consensual partner who was above the age of consent at the time.
In 2022, the impact of NSW police indifference toward hate crimes committed against homosexual and transgender people came under scrutiny in the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes.
The world-first inquiry is due to hand down its final report in June this year.
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