Josh Papali’i of the Canberra Raiders has had both of his charges permanently stayed. Photo: Liv Cameron.
The case against a Canberra Raiders legend has been brought to an end after a court heard there was a possibility police discussed the matter over an encrypted app.
Josh Papali’i was charged with intimidating a public official and remaining in the vicinity after an incident on 16 September, 2024, at Raiders Gungahlin.
It is alleged he was intoxicated when several police officers asked him to leave the premises, but he intimidated one officer and remained near the club after being turfed out.
The prosecution of the charges ended on Friday (31 October) when he was granted a permanent stay in the ACT Magistrates Court.
The decision related to police officers’ use of Signal, an encrypted communications app that automatically deletes messages after a certain time.
The practice guide for the Australian Federal Police says the use of disappearing messages is prohibited.
Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker said one word among more than 400 pages of material alerted Papali’i’s lawyers to the fact that police involved in the investigation had used Signal to communicate.
This was because about a week after the incident, an officer had asked another to let him know via Signal whether CCTV had been obtained from the club.
Defence lawyers learned police in Gungahlin, including officers involved in the investigation of Papali’i, had a Signal group chat that they used to communicate about work as well as socially. This group chat automatically deleted messages after a week.
Chief Magistrate Walker said numerous officers said they couldn’t remember whether there had been discussions about the Papali’i investigation in the chat group.
One officer said it was likely they had spoken about him in the group after the incident at the club, as was normal after all incidents, but they couldn’t remember the content of any conversation.
The chief magistrate said as the messages in the chat group were automatically deleted after a week, this meant there was no evidence of what, if anything, had been discussed about him.
The defence lawyers claimed there had been a deliberate destruction of evidence by police, so applied for a permanent stay of the charges.
They argued prosecutors could not meet their duty of disclosure as evidence had been destroyed.
Prosecutors opposed the stay application, saying officers could be cross-examined about conversations over Signal and pointed out the entire incident with Papali’i was caught on body-worn camera and CCTV.
Chief Magistrate Walker said proceedings were only stayed in exceptional cases and she noted there was a concern about the use of encrypted messaging in law enforcement.
She said there was clear evidence Signal had been used by investigating police to communicate about this case, and while there was no evidence the app was used to talk about the prosecution, that was a possibility.
The chief magistrate said she was satisfied allowing the prosecution to proceed when there had been the destruction of evidence of an unknown kind was an irremediable affront to the process.
She permanently stayed both charges and granted legal costs to Papali’i.
“ACT Policing notes the decision by the court and will consider comments made by the magistrate in due course,” an ACT Policing spokesperson said when approached for comment.
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