How the NSW Police helped Ray Hadley
By
Peter Wicks | 6 March 2013, 2:07am |
13 comments
Shockjock for Sydney’s 2GB, Nine’s NRL announcer Ray Hadley, is a shocking bully, with too-close links to the NSW Police and Government. Peter Wicks reports.
Ray Hadley
If there is one thing that really makes the public sick, it’s hypocrisy.
There has been a lot of talk regarding hypocrisy of late, with organised religion facing the prospect of the
Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. It always strikes a raw nerve when someone who preaches morality acts in such an immoral manner.
However, it not just the religious that preach morality, there are those who are paid to do it on a daily basis on our airwaves. These radio hosts discuss politics and corruption and put forward their opinion on everything from the price of milk to corruption at the highest levels.
Ray Hadley, as you may be aware is a radio host on 2GB — a job many would describe as that of a shock-jock. Ray is also involved in the Rugby League or NRL commentary on Channel 9, and also writes columns for New Ltd's
Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
In his spare time Ray donates a large amount of time to charity, in particular police charities. Ray acts as guest of honour at police events, and is the guest speaker at many police charity events and police balls.
There have been reports recently however of Ray behaving in a manner that is less than charitable towards others.
Fairfax reported on February 24 about an
incident at 2GB involving Ray and one of his staff members a young man named Richard Palmer. Apparently, Richard was just a little too slow for Rays liking in having the days radio show loaded onto the 2GB website. This was dealt with in a professional manner by Ray, who proceeded to verbally abuse the Richard to such an extreme that it reduced him to tears.
This incident was distressing enough for the managing director of 2GB to suspend Ray from the air for a week, so as to rightly support the staff that allows the station to run smoothly. After all, in the workplace it is good to have a team spirit rather than a dictatorship.
After creating such an unnecessary scene, you would think a real man would take it on the chin and come back after a week with an apology, a handshake and a smile? Not Ray. Despite being described as a bully both on air and off, it seems Hadley doesn’t like the heat when faced with it himself.
Instead of taking the real man approach, Ray opted to take the little girly approach instead, which consisted of running crying to poppa to protect them from the big mean man. Poppa, in this case, was
John Singleton, the major shareholder in Macquarie Radio, owners of 2GB, and the big mean man was the managing director.
Singleton did what any proud poppa would do: he stepped in and forced the managing director’s decision to be reversed. So, Ray was happy again, the managing director was put in his place, and the staff now knew what to expect if they had a bad day with Ray.
Listening to this
broadcast linked above, and hearing Hadley talk about how he’d tell Singleton to “get nicked”, paints a vastly different picture to the actual event described above:
A bad day at work should not be tolerated by Hadley’s apparent standard — unless of course it is Hadley having the bad day. Then the Premier no less will jump to your defence.
Here is a
link to a rant and rave of Hadley’s during the Athens Olympic Games, you will notice that Hadley uses the word “Farkin’”, which I am told is the bogan word for “****ing” more times than a rudely awakened wino in Belmore Park.
After this disgraceful episode, which was by some extreme measure of incompetence was allowed to go to air, one of Australia’s best known criminal lawyers sent out a tweet on Twitter labelling the outburst for what it was.
Murphy was shocked to find a quick response came back to his tweet from none other than
Barry O’Farrell, who responded:
“& you’ve never lost it-ever?!”
The NSW premier’s concern for the stress in Hadley’s day is touching indeed, and both have referred to each other as friends in the past, so I guess it is OK for him to jump in stick up for the bloke who is quite happy to call another a colleague a “spastic” — an insult that imputes a disgusting derogation of those with intellectual and learning disabilities.
What really interests me is how far the friendship between Hadley and the NSW premier stretches, and what other areas does Hadley have influence in? Of particular interest to me is Ray’s level of influence within the NSW Police Force, considering that Ray has been often known to boast that it was
he who had Police Commissioner Scipione appointed, as well as Ray’s continued strong support of Police Charities.
What I have described is just a small part of Hadley’s history of bullying within the workplace,
this report from Fairfax’s Jonathon Swan goes into more detail about some of his issues at work.
Hadley’s private life, unfortunately, appears to be as troublesome as his work-life and, after looking into one particular event at his home, I was surprised at the direction the information took from there.
This event centres on a party in the leafy suburb of Dural. At this party were several youngsters who had just completed high school , alcohol, seemingly poor supervision, an electric gate, five off-duty police officers who had spent the night at a local tavern until the wee hours, and allegations of assault.
The party in question was held to celebrate the end of year 12 for Hadley’s daughter and a group of approximately 60 students. It was held at the Hadley residence under the apparent supervision of Hadley and his current wife, with whom he is back together, after a recent separation. The allegations of assault were made against Ray Hadley and his son
Daniel Hadley who recently became a policeman.
According to reports printed in the Daily Telegraph, where Hadley has a regular column, a boy who was heavily intoxicated was escorted from the party. This boy, who reportedly arrived at the party drunk, was allegedly unable to stand and was becoming abusive and assaulted an off-duty female police officer. Allegedly, he was escorted from the premises and then, according to the Hadley’s, broke their electric gate.
It must be noted that there are vastly conflicting versions of the events described above by witnesses who have provided statements to Castle Hill Police. There was no claim ever made for supposed damages to the Hadley’s gate; despite security cameras on the Hadley premises, no footage has so far been forthcoming to support their claim of any damage being done to this installation. Furthermore, no charges have ever been laid or complaints made about an assault of a female police officer — despite it being a serious offence.
According to those who witnessed the event, the 17-year-old youth, who admitted to being intoxicated, was drunk and struggling to get to his feet, but not making a threat to anybody. Daniel Hadley arrived at approximately 1.30am, with some other off duty cops and, allegedly, a chip on his shoulder matched to his father’s apparent ego. It seems Daniel and his mates had reportedly being out drinking all night at the nearby Hills Tavern.
Ray and Daniel Hadley
Ray and Daniel decided that the intoxicated youth should leave the premises and, along with two other off-duty police ‒ one the female officer ‒ went to escort him from property. According to witnesses, it is alleged that while the boy was struggling to rise to his feet, Daniel Hadley kicked the boy in his face. When the boy rose to his feet to a face-full of abuse, witnesses state he was punched in the back of the head by the only man at the party with the guts to hit a 17 year-old who could hardly stand from behind — Ray Hadley. He was then apparently hoisted up by the back of his shirt and dragged out the front gate whilst continuing to be verbally abused.
I am told that when this matter was reported to Castle Hill Police by the victim and other witnesses, attempts were made to stop the matter from progressing.
Police allegedly told witnesses that they were taking on someone powerful in Ray Hadley — and that they should consider that before pursuing the matter.
They were told how they would face harsh questioning from expensive lawyers for hours in court.
Then, after talking to police, several witnesses decided not to make statements.
The policeman these witnesses spoke to is Detective Sergeant Mick Allen.
It should be noted that, after making a statement, it is the right of the person making the statement to receive a copy of their statement for their own records. It is also a matter of law that the statement must be kept private and highly confidential.
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell: Ray Hadley's biggest fan.
Emails obtained by
Independent Australia,that cannot be published at this time for legal reasons, show some highly unusual behaviour by the NSW police officer attending to this case.
These emails show that not only did one witness not receive a copy of their statement after making it, but had to make repeated requests for five days before finally receiving it. The witness in question thought the behaviour was odd and made the requests in writing to Detective Sergeant Mick Allen, who made the unusual request to the witness that the matter only be discussed via his mobile phone. The witness said he had the impression Allen did not want anything in writing.
Some may say it is understandable a statement taking almost a week to be provided to the witness that made it — however I don’t believe that is true in this case.
It may have taken the witness about a week to obtain a copy, but there are allegations that Hadley’s lawyer knew the contents of the confidential statement within two hours of it being given. In fact the statement given by Hadley’s lawyer shortly after seemed to be quoting it almost verbatim. The Hadley’s also allegedly knew the details of a private phone conversation between a witness and Detective Sergeant Allen.
As I stated, I cannot publish these emails I have obtained, however they have been sent along with a copy of this article to the NSW Police Integrity Commission.
I am hoping that the Police Integrity Commission will look into this matter, as it is not in the public interest for police to be stopping witnesses from making statements, and leaking details of statements and private conversations to the alleged offender.
I wondered if this was a case of cops covering up for other cops, however those who are involved have stated that they believe there is more to it than merely that.
I was intrigued to hear Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford’s name come up several times in my investigation, with one source saying that one of the police involved in the case had mentioned his name. Although I am unsure what part he has played in the investigation, if any.
The
Daily Telegraph, one of Ray’s employers ran
an article on the 18thJanuary stating that:
“As my son can't be quoted as a serving police officer, I can be and I can say that my son has been offered an apology by police.”
An alleged offender being offered an apology? That struck me as strange.
Despite repeated attempts, NSW Police media have yet to answer my questions about who made this alleged apology and upon what basis.
What also struck me as strange is, despite this article running on the 18 January 2013, those who gave statements after this date were told by police at Castle Hill that the investigation into Daniel Hadley was still in progress.
According to our investigations, it seems that Daniel Hadley has a reputation that is not becoming of an officer of the law amongst many locally. Witnesses have told me of an alleged incident at the Brewery, a pub near Annangrove where Daniel allegedly had to be removed from the premises by security after he decided he needed to urinate. However rather than walk to the toilets like someone with self-respect would, Daniel allegedly decided to urinate on the floor where he stood, despite it being in the middle of a crowded pub. Don’t expect confirmation of this from the pub, however, because the owner is allegedly an acquaintance of Ray’s; instead, we will have to rely on the testimony of those who actually witnessed the event.
Another event witnessed by many that allegedly occurred whilst out drinking at the Hills Tavern was Daniel having an altercation with his then girlfriend; at the time, Daniel was being trained at the Police Academy.
According to eyewitnesses, Daniel was having a disagreement with his girlfriend, this ended with Daniel screaming abuse at her and finally spitting in the poor girls face in front of everybody. I won’t publish the girl’s name, for privacy reasons.
If what witnesses have reported is accurate, it raises serious questions. How does someone with this temperament pass the NSW police psyche test?
The alleged victim from the party and his family refused to discuss the events or anything about the Hadley’s when contacted saying only that they want to move on from it.
I hope they succeed. I wish them all the best.
With incidents like those alleged above, I wonder how long Ray will hold on to his political buddies — such as Barry O’Farrell and the Police Commissioner.
With allegations of behaviour like those described of Ray Hadley and Daniel Hadley, I very much wonder how long Ray will hold on to his close political buddies like NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell — or would Barry just say that the days Ray abuses his staff, or allegedly punches children from behind, are days that we all could have?
It is my view (though apparently not the view of the NSW Police’s Castle Hill station) that those who have the guts to come forward deserve to have their opinions heard. That is what this story is all about. Just because you are a big man on air, doesn’t mean you are any more important than anyone else, and that your actions have no consequences.
There's more to come about Ray Hadley. Stay tuned.
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