Strike Force Neiwand

Strike Force Neiwand was a NSW Police Unsolved Homicide Team operation that reviewed cold case LGBTIQ hate crime deaths. Unlike Strike Force Parrabell (which made errors of analysis and method), Neiwand’s most serious finding was institutional: it secretly overturned prior coronial homicide findings in multiple cases — and never told the families or notified the Coroner.

Justice Sackar found this to be “intellectually dishonest.” Families who had lived for decades with the knowledge that a Coroner had found their loved one was unlawfully killed learned, through the Sackar Inquiry, that NSW Police had internally reached a different conclusion — and had chosen not to share it.

Recommendation 17 of the SCOI directly addresses this: where a UHT investigation reached a conclusion contrary to an existing coronial finding, NSW Police must notify the Coroner and the family.

Stub — cases affected by Neiwand (Ross Warren, John Russell, Gilles Mattaini) are not yet published in this dataset. This record will be expanded when those cases are entered.

Source: SCOI Report (Sackar J, 2023), Vol. 3, Recommendation 17 and associated findings.