After campaigning for more than eight years on behalf of Shane Cribb, Alexandra couple Steve and Denise Potter feel their efforts have been vindicated.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has agreed with them police mishandled an investigation of the 2005 car crash between Mr Cribb's vehicle and a unmarked police ute driven by Senior Constable Neil Ford. In its report, made public yesterday, the authority outlined ''multiple failings'' by the police.
''I think the report is more positive than we thought it would be; we expected a sort of whitewash type of thing, but this was actually a thorough investigation of it.
''We're pretty happy with it, to be fair,'' Mr Potter said.
At the time of the crash, Mr Cribb was the boyfriend of one of their daughters and since that time, the Potters have spent countless hours advocating on his behalf, convinced of his innocence.
After the crash, Mr Cribb was convicted of causing injury by carelessly using a motor vehicle, but that was overturned after a rehearing.
Ford and another police officer, Constable Dairne Cassidy, later faced criminal charges arising from the crash investigation. Ford was sentenced to 28 months' jail for perjury and Cassidy was sentenced to seven months' home detention for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The Potters had concerns about the police handling of the investigation from the start and contacted the IPCA.
''We said to Shane, 'don't worry about this crash and them thinking you were at fault, we'll sort it out with the police' - how naive were we,'' Mr Potter said yesterday.
''One of the biggest problems is you couldn't rely on the very people you rely on to do things properly - the police,'' he said.
They were surprised the authority found there was no police ''cover-up''.
''It seems strange then that so many officers failed to act the way they were supposed to,'' Mr Potter said.
''There's probably a lot of senior police who are looking at this, thinking there was a series of mistakes and when does that become deliberate?''
They were also surprised there would be no disciplinary consequences for any of the officers whose actions were criticised in the IPCA report.
The couple keep in close contact with Mr Cribb and are proud he is making a success of his life.
''To me, that's the equivalent to winning Lotto, to see how Shane is now,'' Mrs Potter said.
The whole story
- 'Multiple failings' by police ...
- Confidence in Alexandra policing ...
- Police behavious described as 'indefensible' + timeline ...
- Seeing another side to court ...
