Isles faces $750k defamation claim
THE son of a missing former Burdekin police officer is being sued for $750,000 by two of his former colleagues.
Former Ayr Senior Sergeant Mick Isles disappeared 10 years ago with a coroner later ruling he committed suicide, which his family disputes. His son Steven allegedly posted on a Facebook page the Queensland Police Service had “blood on their hands” over the case.
Retired police officer Steven Szendrey and Detective Sergeant Gavin Neal have launched a $750,000 defamation claim against Mr Isles.
TWO senior North Queensland police officers have launched legal action against the son of their dead colleague over a Facebook post which they claim labelled them “corrupt”.
Former Ayr senior sergeant Mick Isles disappeared 10 years ago while on duty with a coroner later ruling he committed suicide after his police vehicle was found abandoned in remote bushland – a ruling the family has disputed.
His son Steven has a Facebook page titled “Senior-sergeant Michael Isles family aim for closure”.
According to documents filed in the Cairns District Court, a post allegedly made to the page in May named several former colleagues of his father and said the Queensland Police Service had “blood on their hands” over his death.
Two officers named in the post, retired Senior-sergeant Steven Szendrey and Detective Sergeant Gavin Neal, who still works in Ayr, have launched a $750,000 defamation claim against Mr Isles, alleging the post had damaged their “personal and professional reputation” and caused “hurt, distress and embarrassment”.
Mr Isles, a Justice of the Peace and former Northern Territory police officer, said earlier this year his father suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his police service, including being wrongfully targeted in a 2008 corruption investigation. Sen-sgt Isles, 58, was cleared of alleged misconduct on September 18, 2009 and exonerated of any wrongdoing by then-queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson.
The claim alleged Mr Isles posted on the social media site that Sgt Neal had been a “leak” in the Ayr station and that his father was “targeted” by him, former Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson, Sen-sgt Szendrey and a corrections officer.
Legal representatives for the two officers said in the claim the damages were sought to “vindicate” their reputations, compensate them for the “distress and embarrassment”, reflect the large readership of the post, be enough to convince the public it was not true and “provide reparation for the damage to (their) reputations”.
The claim said the two officers had penned a letter to Mr Isles early last month asking for the post to be removed, but this had not occurred.
A court date is yet to be set.