Counsel assisting said it was “highly likely” a man called Jeffrey Miller,who died in 1986,was responsible for the assault that led to Slater’s death,but he submitted the inquiry would hesitate to make a formal finding because Miller was not alive to answer the allegation and a prosecution case against him was dropped in 1983.

Miller had been charged in September 1982 with Slater’s murder,but the prosecution subsequently filed a “no bill” and the case did not proceed.

“If the inquiry were satisfied that Mr Miller was the perpetrator,there is evidence that he had a practice of targeting beat users as targets for robbery,” counsel assisting said.

The inquiry heard Slater’s money purse containing about $30 was missing.

If Slater had died at the hands of Miller,counsel assisting said his death was “likely to have involved the targeting,or ‘discriminatory selection’ of someone presumed to be gay” or a beat user,whether or not that assumption was correct,“on the basis that he was … seen as a vulnerable target of robbery”.

“It is submitted that such a case … is one in which LGBTIQ bias is present.”

Supreme Court Justice John Sackar,who is heading the inquiry,thanked Yvonne for her submission,in which she remembered her grandfather as “a loyal and humble family man with a caring nature,just going about life with integrity”.

“Richard’s life story will probably be considered by most as ordinary;however,through the eyes of a granddaughter,it is in the ordinary that the greatest treasures and memories are found,” she wrote.

“The horrific and heartbreaking impact that his murder has had on my life is very hard to express openly and words often evade me when talking about it.

“I witnessed my beloved grandmother (his wife) and my beloved mother (his daughter) suffer immensely in their grief,both broken-hearted.”

While he was yet to receive submissions from NSW Police,Sackar said there was “no doubt that Mr Slater died as a result of a cowardly attack upon him”.

“You were one of the first people to make contact with me when my appointment was announced,” he told Yvonne. “I thank you for that. Your grandfather would rightly be very proud of you.”

He extended the inquiry’s condolences to Yvonne and her extended family.

“My true hope and intention in this statement about Richard Slater is to shine a light on his life and not for him to be remembered as a victim or a news headline,but for him to be remembered as someone who had a raison d’etre – a reason for being,” Yvonne said.

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