POLICEMAN TIPPED OFF FRIEND OVER RAID

A police crewman from the NSW police helicopter admitted to the NSW
Police Integrity Commission yesterday that he had tipped off a friend
and former police officer that police were about to raid his home for
drugs.

Senior Constable Christan Bruce said that on the morning of December
11 last year he arrived at work to be briefed about a job the police
helicopter would be involved in that day.

Constable Bruce, who is a senior observer on the helicopter, realised
the premises they were to observe were the office and home of his
friend, Mr Peter Murrant, who left the NSW Police Service last year.
Constable Bruce slipped from the briefing and immediately telephoned
Mr Murrant and left a coded, nervous message on his answering machine,
which was played to the commission yesterday:

"G'day Spider [Mr Murrant's nickname] ... apparently I have to help
someone get rid of their low-maintenance and high-maintenance bits and
pieces from their work and their home ... anyway we have to go now and
do a job regarding a search warrant."

The pair were to have met that night for a drink.

Later that same day he telephoned again and said: "Hopefully you got
my message and that there's nothing at home or work that anyone need
worry about."

Questioned in the commission yesterday, Constable Bruce said the two
premises he was sent to observe were Mr Murrant's office, Blue Falcon
Security in Bayswater Road, and his home address.

He was talking to Mr Murrant in code, he said, with "low-maintenance"
referring to ecstasy and "high-maintenance" to cocaine.

Asked why he felt he should tip him off, Constable Bruce said: "I
considered him one of my best friends and thought it was my duty as a
friend to warn him in regards to the cocaine and the ecstasy."

It is not known how long the Police Integrity Commission had been
taping the telephone calls of Mr Murrant and his serving police
colleagues, but yesterday about a dozen tapped calls were played in
the hearing room.

One, from September 26 last year, was between Constable Bruce, who was
in Scruffy Murphy's Hotel, and Mr Murrant, who was at Darling Harbour,
in which they talked about "dog", a code for ecstasy or cocaine, the
commission alleged.

Constable Bruce on the tape: "I mentioned it to him tonight. Oh a
dog's bark. I said woof to him and he goes excited."

Mr Murrant: "Didn't you bring that dog, that barking dog that was at home?"

When Mr Murrant was asked in the commission yesterday about the dog
references, he said that it was simply a long-running joke between him
and Constable Bruce as he felt Constable Bruce did not give his German
shepherd enough to eat.

"The dog was 35kg and it should have been 45kg or 50kg."

Counsel assisting the commission, Mr Pat Barrett, suggested that he
was talking about illegal drugs. Mr Murrant denied this.

At one point yesterday, questioning moved away from Mr Murrant's
employment of serving police in his security business and onto the
alleged use and sale of illegal drugs.

When his friend took to the witness stand, Mr Murrant's head slumped
into his hands as he listened to the evidence.

At the end of the day's proceedings the two men stood near each other
at the back of the hearing room but avoided eye contact.

Mr Murrant left via the public entrance and Constable Bruce through
the "rollover door" and into the commission's offices.

The hearing, which is looking into the use and sale of illegal drugs
by serving and former police, continues today.