“I knew we needed evidence. No accurate statistics were kept. We couldn’t rely on police to provide that or anyone else,come to that matter. We had to do it ourselves,” Cox said.
He told the inquiry that “what was emerging in 1988 was this issue of regular reports ... of violence,particularly against gay men but not exclusively”.
“The first reports I heard were of people being attacked in Hyde Park,and then it seemed to change to being around the environments of Oxford Street,Crown Street;people being chased by gangs of ... young boys,really,they were teenagers with baseball bats.”
While the data was being collected,theHerald published a second report in December 1988 pointing to a spate of gang attacks on the gay community.
“It was a terrifying picture,” Cox said. “I think it demonstrated that action was needed,and our strategy ... to get this publicised in the mainstream media was particularly to engage politicians and the senior members of the police service.”
Cox authored the resultantStreetwatch report,published in 1990,that presented statistics about homophobic attacks across the state. The report collated 67 responses,63 from men and four from women.
It found the majority of attacks occurred between 9pm and 3am,and in 94 per cent of incidents the assailants were all male.
“Over two-thirds of incidents involved three or more assailants,with over 30 per cent of incidents involving six or more assailants,” Cox said in a statement tendered at the inquiry.
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“The young gang aspects of the assaults was confirmed by the[victim’s] perception that over 80 per cent of the assailants were under the age of 30. Nearly half were judged to be 20 or under.”
The report was sent “far and wide” to relevant ministers,local councils and police. “We had quite a distribution list,” Cox said.
And it led to a string of policing initiatives,including foot patrols and a large police van stationed at Taylor Square in Darlinghurst to provide assistance to members of the LGBTIQ community. It was also the start of gay and lesbian liaison officers being stationed at particular stations,a “highly critical change”,Cox said.
“We’ve come quite a way in quite a short period of time,” Cox said.
The NSW inquiry,a world-first,has called a string of witnesses to help illuminate the “social,legal and cultural factors affecting the LGBTIQ community” in the 40 years from 1970 to 2010 before it trains its sights on a series of suspected hate crimes.
Headed by Supreme Court Justice John Sackar,the inquiry willexplore dozens of deaths in NSW during that time after every known unsolved homicide from those years was reviewed – totalling more than 700 cases.
Later on Wednesday,Bruce Grant,also a former co-convenor of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and former coordinator of the Coordinator of the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project,gave evidence about community-based initiatives including volunteers patrolling on Oxford Street.
“They brought visibility to the issue[and] a challenge to police,” Grant said. The patrols,over about two summers,“really upset” police but they had “a much higher presence around Oxford Street by the time it was finished,so it was effective in that sense”,he said.
The inquiry continues.
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