The Senior Police officer who left the family of a drowned Gomeroi man feeling frustrated and in despair has admitted it was wrong to call off a search for their loved one.
Gordon Copeland's body was found three months after he was reported missing, following an interaction with New South Wales Police on July 10, 2021.
He was travelling in a black sedan in the early hours of the morning, when police officers briefly followed the car, suspecting it was stolen.
The occupants, including Mr Copeland and two others, fled the car soon afterwards.
The inquest has previously heard Mr Copeland, 22, either jumped or fell into the flooded and fast-moving Gwydir River after an officer tried to apprehend him.
On Wednesday the court was told that a few hours after Mr Copeland’s interaction with police, Detective Senior Constable Bradley Beddoes came to the conclusion that there were two rather than three people in the car and that consequently everyone had been accounted for.
He said he reached the conclusion without speaking to officers who were at the scene and had tried to rescue Mr Copeland, or Jabour Clarke and Kowhai Roberts, the two other occupants of the car.
Counsel Assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer criticised his decision making, and Constable Beddoes agreed he “probably” came to his decision prematurely.
Mr Copeland was found in the Gwydir River three months after he went missing. Source: NITV: Sascha Estons
NSW Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan took over the line of questioning, and asked Constable Beddoes whether the information he used to justify suspending the search for Mr Copeland had been "validated".
"If validate means speak to the actual people involved, then no," Constable Beddoes replied.
Asked whether he had spoken to any of the officers or civilians involved in the incident before he arrived, the officer's reply was again "No", stating instead that he was satisfied with the information that he had.
The family's concerns were correct
Constable Beddoes confirmed he was acting on the same information when informing Mr Copeland’s Aunt, who was at the station and had been asking to speak with the relevant officer for 6 hours, that the search was called off.
In questioning, Coroner O’Sullivan posed to the officer that he was expecting Mr Copeland's Aunt to accept the information as verified, when in fact it hadn't been.
"Yes, if that’s [the way] you see it, yep," he replied.
When asked whether the family, who had requested for a search to recommence because he was missing, were in fact right and he was wrong, the officer agreed.
"You accept, don't you, that at that stage based on the intel they had, they were right that Gordon had been missing all that time... and the police had got it wrong in terms of the search being called off earlier?" asked Ms Dwyer.
"Yes."
The inquest continues.
