Zachary Rolfe flanked on his right by defence barrister David Edwardson,QC,leaving court last week after being acquitted of all charges.Credit:AAP
“Alice Springs sucks ha ha. The good thing is it’s like the Wild West and f--- all the rules in the job really ... but it’s a shit hole,” Constable Zachary Rolfe wrote in one message to an old Army friend.
“Good to start here coz of the volume of work but will be good to leave.”
In another message contained in the trove,he wrote:“We have this small team in Alice,IRT,immediate response team. We’re not full time,just get called up from[general duties] for high risk jobs,it’s a sweet gig,just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules.”
Despite the prosecution’s efforts throughout the pre-trial hearings,the messages were deemed inadmissable.
Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland,SC.Credit:Krystle Wright
Defence barrister David Edwardson,QC,had no issues with lifting the majority of the 26 non-publication orders,but sought to keep suppressions over the text messages and also allegations aired about Constable Rolfe’s conduct during several earlier arrests.
The prosecution wanted to bring details about these arrests to the murder trial because it believed they presented the “tendency” for Constable Rolfe to use excessive force and to make false statements in justification.