Former Joondalup cop accused of using police database to illegally access details about three people 180 times

An ex cop will front court tomorrow, accused of illegally using a police database to search the details of three different people up to 180 times over eight years. The former sergeant, from the Joondalup District, was charged early last month with three counts of unlawful use of a computer system. Police allege that between 2010 and 2018, the 59-year-old unlawfully looked up information relating to three different people a total of 180 times. The Quinns Rocks man retired from policing in 2018. He will face Joondalup Magistrate’s Court on Friday. It comes only months after former cop Alexander Dick Macnaughton was granted bail and permitted to return to his Greenmount home — less than 200m from a primary school — after being charged with multiple child sex abuse charges. Police alleged that between 1988 and 1998, Mr Macnaughton indecently dealt with a child under the age of 13 three times. He is also charged with one count of raping a child under 13 years, two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of having a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 16. Mr Macnaughton pleaded not guilty to all charges and was remanded to appear in court again on February 17. Last June internal affairs unit officers charged 58-year-old senior constable Michael Menzo Elliot, from the Mandurah District, with 12 counts of unlawful use of a computer and one count of stalking. Police alleged the officer, who was stood down from all duties, accessed the police incident management system 12 times from June 2019 to June 2020. The pursuing charge is related to an incident alleged to have happened between March 9 and April 29 2020 — weeks before charges were laid. He has since pleaded guilty and is next due in Mandurah Magistrate’s Court on March 2. Two months later, a 32-year-old senior constable was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm after allegedly assaulting a 28-year-old man who’d been in a traffic crash just minutes earlier. The man was in hospital for treatment of minor hand injuries he had received in the crash when the alleged incident occurred. Three weeks later state traffic command officers charged 31-year-old senior constable Justin William Browne, from the traffic enforcement group, with reckless driving. It’s alleged the officer drove at excessive speeds, reaching 171km/h in a 100km/h zone, without authorisation in a bid to stop a motorcycle in Baldivis in June.