The Australian federal police have been tasked with investigating allegations against former Northern Territory police commissioner John McRoberts, who resigned earlier this year in the face of claims he sought to influence an ongoing criminal case.
Earlier this month the Northern Territory corruption watchdog recommended interstate police officers be brought in to investigate McRoberts’s actions as a criminal matter.
McRoberts is understood to have sought to interfere with a criminal case against Alexandra Kamitsis, a Darwin travel agent and chair of Crimestoppers NT. Kamitsis was last week charged with a further 148 offences and is due to face court in April. McRoberts has denied he had a conflict of interest.
The recommendation from the Public Interest Disclosure Commission (PIDC) prompted chief minister Adam Giles to call off a proposed separate judicial inquiry into the matter, on advice from the NT solicitor general that it could jeopardise any potential prosecutions.
At the time it was not known which state police force the officers would be drawn from, and Giles said the government would “seek to identify which Australian police force has the capacity to be able to assist us.”
On Sunday the NT News reported the AFP would take control of the investigation, despite reportedly denying it earlier in the week after police minister Peter Chandler revealed a decision had been made.
In a statement to Guardian Australia, a spokesman confirmed the AFP “has been requested to provide members to conduct an investigation on behalf of the Northern Territory police.”
Because the matter is ongoing, the spokesman declined to comment further on any details of the investigation, its terms of reference or to whom the AFP officers would be reporting.
Acting police commissioner Reece Kershaw on Sunday said he had been in negotiations with the AFP to get a memorandum of understanding and terms of reference for the investigators.
“They’ll be deploying shortly and meeting with the [director of public prosecutions] and likely a special prosecutor, where they’ll take their instructions and be investigating the criminal investigation,” said Kershaw.
He said the NT police had handed “a lot of internal material” to the [solicitor for the] NT in relation to three matters Kershaw had referred to the solicitor general, as well as material to the ombudsman and the PIDC.
“Having said that this is a criminal investigation, it is slightly different, the threshold is much higher so there will be additional material that the AFP will likely request. We’ll be setting that up for them where they’ll be sworn in as special constables of the NT police and be given access to all of our holdings.”
Chandler said he had “full confidence” in the capabilities of the AFP to conduct the investigation and supply a brief of evidence to prosecutors.
“In the event charges are laid then those matters relevant to the charging will be read into court and thus become public that way,” Chandler said in a statement to Guardian Australia.
“As the minister for police, it would be inappropriate for me to interfere with the AFP investigations.”
