A senior Illawarra policeman accused of asking his ex-girlfriend to provide a false affidavit to cover up his illegal use of a police database offered to have his solicitor draft the statement for her to sign, a court has heard.
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Prosecutors allege Lake Illawarra Inspector Ron Davis had a fellow officer unlawfully access the NSW COPS database at his request on May 2, 2016 to learn the vehicle registration of his estranged defacto, Nicole Haywood.
It is alleged he had the officer perform the task under the guise of reporting a driving incident that afternoon on Memorial Drive, and which he claims involved Ms Haywood tailgating him.
In text and Facebook messages sent to the pair’s mutual friend Danina Scrivenor, Davis wrote “I just saw her car at Towradgi, it tailgated me so I rang the cops to ask them to check it [the rego on the database]...and what do you know it was her”.
Ms Haywood told the court on Tuesday she was on Memorial Drive that day but didn’t see Davis’ car. She said she wouldn’t have tailgated him as she was “hiding from him”.
Davis’ data breach was the subject of a formal police complaint and he was put on restricted duties from May 9.
Ms Scrivenor said a month later Davis asked her about having Ms Haywood sign an affidavit to help his case.
“I can have a solicitor draw up an affidavit,” he wrote to her. “All she has to do is sign it if she agrees and return it….[it would say] she was where she was and close to my car.”
Ms Scrivenor said the affidavit was discussed at a meeting between the trio on June 6.
“Ron said ‘we need to be on the same page...you need to write an affidavit, my solicitor is happy to do that….just say you were there,” she told the court.
“Nicole said ‘I wasn’t there, I didn’t tailgate you. I don’t want to write the affidavit, I don’t want to lie’.”
Davis’ barrister April Francis suggested to Ms Scrivenor that Davis had only been telling them his version of events and if Ms Haywood agreed, she could give that information to investigators.
“[I suggest] the accused never said to Ms Haywood in your presence or to you that Ms Haywood should lie about the 2nd of May,” Ms Francis asked.
“Yes he did, he said ‘just say you were there’,” Ms Scrivenor replied.
‘This boss is out to get me’
An Illawarra police officer accused of illegally accessing a police database then trying to get his ex-girlfriend to lie on his behalf blames his boss for the internal investigation that prompted the charges, a court has heard.
In private messages sent to his friend Danina Scrivenor on Facebook in mid-2016, Lake Illawarra Inspector Ron Davis revealed he didn’t trust the command’s then-leader, Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan.
“This boss has made a number of assumptions and is out to get me,” he wrote while the pair was discussing allegations that Davis used the police database to track down his ex-partner’s registration number on May 2, 2016.
“He’s the one who started all this [the investigation] in the first place.”
Davis repeatedly asked Ms Scrivenor whether she or his ex had spoken to police about the May incident.
“I need to make sure neither of you have contacted police about it and it’s just come from the boss. It’s critical,” he wrote.
The trial continues in Sydney.