A former senior Tweed/Byron police officer who lied to the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) about a drug-fuelled weekend has cried in court as he described how his career has been destroyed.
Former detective inspector Shane Diehm, 49, was hauled before the PIC in October 2011 to answer questions about drug use in the force.
During that hearing, Diehm was quizzed about a drug-fuelled boys weekend on Queensland’s Gold Coast the year before, in which officers were secretly recorded consuming illicit drugs and hash cookies.
Diehm initially lied to the commission about taking drugs but after a two-hour adjournment at the PIC, went back and admitted he had.
Diehm has pleaded guilty to two counts of giving false information in relation to this.
But he denies he lied to the PIC when he said he ‘didn’t remember’ seeing other former and serving cops use drugs that weekend.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of providing false information to the PIC in relation to this.
Diehm told Downing Centre Local Court today that he had ‘no reason’ to protect the other cops.
‘I’m not naive enough to believe that I was the only one who (took drugs)… but if I had to guess who I saw or what the footage showed, I have no recollection,’ he said.
Diehm cried as he told the court how his drug use had impacted his family and career.
When he fronted the PIC, Diehm was suspended from duty for testing positive for cocaine after a colleague’s retirement party in August 2011.
Since then, Diehm, who served at Tweed Heads, said he had been ‘absolutely hammered’ by the north coast’s media.
‘I come from a really old-fashioned family where I am the oldest and sort of looked up to,’ he said.
Diehm told the court that during the two-hour adjournment at the PIC hearing, he had thought about his mother and family, and decided to go back to tell the truth about his drug use.
‘My life was on a spiral … my son wouldn’t talk to me,’ he said.
He said he knew that at the end of the PIC hearing, his career was over.
‘I was suspended … I had no future.’
The hearing continues.
