NSW Police has opened an investigation into an officer after an activist claimed a court was shown false quotes attributed to him.
Activist Drew Pavlou said a senior constable, who interviewed him in connection with a protest in Sydney last year, included the alleged false quotes in a statement that was contained in a brief of evidence.
Documents seen by Crikey show the officer claimed Pavlou had “laughed” at the suggestion Australia should be “accepting of all cultures”.
“I observed that he portrayed little respect for multicultural Australians,” the officer wrote.
Pavlou was quoted as saying: “They come to our country and don’t even try to fit into our culture.”
Pavlou’s barrister Anthony Morris KC said he was present when Pavlou first read the alleged quotes attributed to him.
“He was furious … Of all the insults that could have been put against him, [being portrayed as a racist] is the one that stung the most,” Morris told Crikey.
A NSW Police spokesperson confirmed an “ongoing investigation” was underway and that it was “unable to provide further comment”.
Pavlou said he was contacted by NSW Police on Tuesday and told an officer had been assigned to an investigation into the senior constable and the allegedly false statements.
Pavlou told Crikey he had spoken to the senior constable at a suburban Sydney police station in May last year to give a witness statement about the alleged assault of one of his friends at a protest.
About a week later, Pavlou was arrested at a different protest in the same area and was eventually charged with offensive behaviour and refusing to comply with a police direction.
Morris said the allegedly false statement was tendered to the court in the context of those proceedings.
Pavlou was found not guilty of the first charge, while the second was withdrawn by police, court documents show.
NSW Police was ordered to pay costs to Morris.
“Their case was paper thin … and it cost them a lot of money,” Morris told Crikey.
Pavlou, who campaigns against the Chinese government, believes the quotes had allegedly been added to the document to “paint him as a racist”.
“For four years I’ve been so careful to constantly say I’m against the Chinese Communist Party, not the Chinese people or China as a country,” he said.
“Portraying me as a racist is a horrific smear.”
