1963: The Royal Commission That Cleared Brisbane Police, Then Unravelled as a Cover-up
A Queensland judge was appointed on this day in 1963 to investigate claims that police, including the state's own police commissioner, frequented Brisbane's National Hotel and turned a blind eye to an illegal call girl racket run out of its rooms. Justice Harry Gibbs was handed narrow terms of reference and a police force left to investigate itself, and the following year he cleared every officer involved, finding no acceptable evidence of misconduct.
The truth surfaced years later. Key witness Shirley Brifman admitted she had perjured herself before the commission after being coached by detective Tony Murphy, one of the very officers she had been questioned about. Brifman was due to give evidence against Murphy at his perjury trial when she died in suspicious circumstances at a police safe house, just over a fortnight before she was to take the stand. The case against Murphy collapsed, and the full extent of the cover-up was not exposed until a later inquiry decades on.
