‘EVERYONE WAS DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL!’
HE’S BEEN A COP, CRIMINAL FIXER – AND PRISONER
Former policeman and one-time ‘Mr Fix It’ for some of Kings Cross’ most notorious identities, Charles Staunton has lived life on both sides of the law.
“I enjoyed being a policeman and thought I was going to save the world,” Charles, 60, tells New Idea. “It was exciting. But it was also disappointing because they seemed to get away with everything.
“There was a hard-drinking culture; the law didn’t really seem to apply to the police
– it applied to everyone else.”
Charles says the police were “a hassle to most of the establishments”.
“If you were in Kings Cross, everyone was doing something illegal, whether it was not paying your taxes, or because the licensing laws forced you to do something illegal or you’d never sell a drink,” he says.
“I knew where the police cheated. I knew where the observation squad said they saw something when it was impossible.”
After leaving the NSW police in the late ’80s and working as a doorman and host in various Kings Cross clubs, Charles used his understanding of both sides
of the law to build a private investigator business.
“Every business in Kings Cross sold capsules of cocaine,” he says. “It was just the place you went to get them. The leaseholders didn’t really get involved but they got $20,000 a week rent for something that was worth $2000 a week and they didn’t care what was going on.
“I can’t really justify that I didn’t know what was going on or who the players were but I kept a distance from their work. The only time I became involved was when the police became involved.
“That was their [the police and the Kings Cross businessmen] world.
“You weren’t going to break up that world – that’s just what happened. It had nothing to do with me except … Don’t set up Bill [Bayeh] … Don’t set up anyone I know!
At this time, Charles was on a good wicket and was enjoying the perks his notoriety was bringing him.
“I had a really nice apartment; I got a really good deal on a Porsche and I enjoyed being a bit of a playboy,” he recalls.
“I had lots of friends in the music industry, so whenever a star came to town they’d always ring me and say, ‘Charlie, come down.’ I’m not in awe of any pop star. I’ve met them all – Whitney Houston still owes me $50!
“Paul and Linda Mccartney had finished a show and they’d had this discussion, ‘Whenever you’re in trouble in Sydney, you
“THEY NEARLY KILLED A GUY ON THE FIRST NIGHT THINKING IT WAS ME”
want Charlie.’ And they said, ‘Bring him down’, because Joe Cocker had been in town the year before and we’d partied hard ’til stupid o’clock in the morning. We just had a great night.”
But in 1994, the fun ended when Charles was subpoenaed to give evidence at the Royal Commission into police corruption hearings.
After refusing to answer questions about his business dealings with now convicted drug trafficker Bill Bayeh, he was jailed for a year.
On his first night in Long Bay, he learnt that as an ex-cop, there was a price on his head.
“I’d been to the jail thousands of times and I was aware of the protocols and behaviour and how it all worked,” he says.
“It would be a random person – someone who wanted to climb up the rank – who would have a go at me.”
Because Charles had clients who were behind bars he believed they would look after him in prison. But he got that one wrong. “They [the other prisoners] nearly killed a guy on the first night thinking it was me,” he recalls. “These guys bashed
[him] within an inch of his life. In the morning, one of my best friends in the police force pleaded with me to reconsider and answer the questions at the Royal Commission, and I said no.
“I remember that night when they said, ‘Make that phone call [to your family]. My youngest son Timothy said, ‘I know, I know, dobbers wear nappies’.
“That gave me a resolve that my children had listened to me and that was the number one moral in our lives: you don’t tell tales on anyone.
“The Royal Commission was meant to be about police corruption in the force, but the only people who went to jail were Bill Bayeh and me. Of course the people I was helping, they weren’t really innocent, but the police didn’t have a case against them, they said. I take umbrage at police cheating – there are rules. If you can’t get someone by the law, don’t be as bad as them!”