JUSTICE WOODWARD KILLED IN CRASH

Former Supreme Court judge and royal commissioner, Justice Philip Morgan
Woodward, QC, was killed yesterday in a headon crash after apparently
suffering a heart attack. Justice Woodward, 85, was bestknown for his
fight against drug trafficking through the Woodward Royal Commission in the
late 1970s.

The commission was set up following the disappearance of antidrugs
campaigner Donald Mackay and linked the Calabrian Mafia with local crime
bosses. Justice Woodward's efforts in exposing marijuana syndicates was
seen as a major success.

Justice Woodward was killed when his Daewoo sedan collided headon with a
Ford Laser near the intersection of Strathallen Avenue and Calbina Street
in Northbridge at 12.10pm. The driver of the other vehicle, an elderly man,
was seriously injured and was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Justice Woodward's wife, Pauline, said her husband had visited the doctor
at 11.30am yesterday and when he had not returned by 1pm she knew that
something had happened. "The police arrived at 2.30pm to tell me that he
had died," Mrs Woodward said.

"Apparently there was a curve in the road and he just went straight ahead
into the path of an oncoming car. They think he may have had a heart
attack. It was Justice Woodward's royal commission that led to the
formation of the Australian Federal Police service, set up to combat
organised crime nationally.

During the commission, Justice Woodward, together with Mr Bill Fisher, QC,
(now Justice Fisher of the NSW Industrial Court), conducted what Mr Fisher
described as a "carpetrolling" operation, starting with the small fry and
moving relentlessly towards the controllers. Woodward and Fisher carved
through the lies and deception and coverup of a drug industry which would
never have thrived to such an extent had law enforcement bodies done their
job.

Justice Woodward went on a secret trip to the Riverina to have a look at
the "grass castles" cultivated by marijuana traffickers.

In November 1979 his 2,000page report presented for the first time an
accurate picture of how drug distribution operated in Australia.

His warnings about the drug industry and the need for effective law
enforcement echoed through the 1990s, reflected in the recent meetings of
heads of government to work out national strategies.

The president of the NSW Bar Association, of which Justice Woodward was an
expresident, Mr David Bennett, QC, said last night: "He was a great common
law judge much loved at the bar." Sir Laurence Street said: "He took a
courageous stand and I think he laid the groundwork for a lot of work that
was done subsequently."