{"id":22023,"date":"2023-07-29T00:57:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T00:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=22023"},"modified":"2023-07-29T00:57:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T00:57:20","slug":"mcclellan-to-lead-astill-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/07\/29\/mcclellan-to-lead-astill-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"McClellan to lead Astill inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In light of troubling new allegations, the NSW Government has appointed the Hon Peter McClellan AM KC to lead a special ministerial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the offences committed by former NSW correctional officer Wayne Astill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Astill was charged in 2016 and convicted in 2023 for serious offences against inmates in his care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since his conviction, new allegations have been made against Mr Astill and the institutional response to his offending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inquiry has been established under section 82 of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013, which will give Mr McClellan\u2019s inquiry the coercive powers of a Royal Commission to compel witnesses and seek evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inquiry\u2019s terms of reference will include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>whether any other employee of Corrective Services NSW had knowledge or suspicion of the offending, and what steps they took;<\/li><li>the systems of supervision and oversight that applied in relation to Wayne Astill at Dillwynia Women\u2019s Correctional Centre, their adequacy and how they should be improved;<\/li><li>whether any matters arising from the inquiry should be referred to law enforcement or other agencies, and<\/li><li>whether the circumstances related to Astill\u2019s offending and the review\u2019s findings require further consideration of broader site or case specific or Corrective Services NSW wide investigations.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The inquiry will report to government by 15 December 2023, or earlier if possible, and a report must be tabled in each House of Parliament within 30 sitting days of that House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/k1ohpqvj564621xwg1o88\/Terms-of-Refernce-McClellanReview-280723.pdf?dl=0&amp;rlkey=ojk5znhwzzq0ecul5zkjqdh2p\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">See the Terms of Reference herelaunch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Minister for Corrections Anoulack Chanthivong said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLearning of Mr Astill\u2019s crimes and the allegations made in the wake of his conviction has been deeply disturbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to pay tribute to the bravery of Mr Astill\u2019s victims in coming forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMr McClellan is the right person to lead this inquiry and I\u2019m confident he has the powers he needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to let anything risk other ongoing investigations, so we\u2019ve been careful in designing the scope and format of this inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe owe it to the overwhelming majority of Corrective Services officers doing the right thing to ask ourselves the hard questions, and that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In light of troubling new allegations, the NSW Government has appointed the Hon Peter McClellan AM KC to lead a special ministerial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the offences committed by former NSW correctional officer Wayne Astill. Mr Astill was charged in 2016 and convicted in 2023 for serious offences against inmates in his care. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/07\/29\/mcclellan-to-lead-astill-inquiry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;McClellan to lead Astill inquiry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22024,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22023\/revisions\/22024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}