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Counsel assisting Peter Gray,SC,pictured at the LGBTIQ hate crimes inquiry last year.Credit:Louise Kennerley

He said the document issue could impact the investigation of unsolved homicides,with one internal police document in recent years highlighting that if the unsolved homicide team continued to review cases at its current rate,it would take 900 years for existing cases to be reviewed.

According to a NSW Police issue paper from 2018,which examined “ongoing capacity issues at the homicide squad”,unsolved homicides are accumulating faster than they can be solved.

“With the current capacity limitation it will take over 900 years to clear the backlog,even if no further matters are added to the list,” the paper said.

“Moreover,this does not include the large number of missing persons and unsolved homicides held at[Police Area Commands] and[Police Districts] or the unidentified remains,which taken together will triple the current investigations held at the squad.”

The paper identified “immediate and future risks” including the ability to solve homicides becoming perpetually worse as the number of unsolved matters increased and investigations became longer.

“Even if there were no more murders committed in NSW,the squad would never be able to complete matters currently held,” it said.

“If this continues the NSWPF will be unable to resolve homicide matters unless an offender is arrested in the first 7-10 days. This means that the NSWPF will not meet its obligations to the community,primary or secondary victims.”

Since 2018,a process was put in place to triage the homicide backlog,involving officers in external and specialist commands being assigned a case and tasked to review it,before it was returned to the homicide squad for “quality control and assurance”.

According to a NSW Police document from 2022 identifying procedures to address the backlog,the review process was identified as being “problematic” because the unsolved homicide team did not know who the allocated review officer was,their location,or the status of the review.

The document said the review process was intended to prioritise matters for reinvestigation,which was not the case when cases were sent out externally.

“A delay of more than two years to complete or start reviews is impacting the solvability of those cases,” the document said.

In written submissions to the inquiry,senior counsel assisting James Emmett,SC,and counsel assisting Rebecca McEwen said the unsolved homicide team has been affected by limitations in resourcing,but evidence also suggests there is a “major failing” in the way these resources are used.

“The evidence indicates that the[unsolved homicide team],in its function of reviewing unsolved homicide cases,has been beset by inactivity and delay and that this continues today,” the counsel said.

They said it is common for the NSW Coroner to refer matters to the unsolved homicide team,with police representing the team to be “competent and adequately resourced”.

“It is to be assumed that,when doing so,the Coroner and relatives of a deceased person expect that there is a realistic prospect that the matter will be considered by the UHT within a reasonable time,and not a period of time that can be measured in centuries,” the submission said.

The inquiry,which began last year,is examining unsolved deaths in NSW between 1970 and 2010 that are suspected to be hate crimes targeting members of the LGBTIQ community.

The hearing continues before Commissioner John Sackar.

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