Athol Moffitt

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Athol Randolph Moffitt (1914-2007) was an eminent Australian jurist and was the author of several books. He is best known as the chair of the landmark 1973-74 Moffitt Royal Commission, which investigated organised crime in New South Wales.

[edit] Biography

Moffit was the son of NSW workers' compensation judge Herbert William Moffitt, and his older sister Gwen was also a practising solicitor. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School and then studied law at the University of Sydney, where he graduated with first-class honours. He was admitted to the NSW bar in 1938.^[1]

Moffitt was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1956, and became a member of the bar council. In 1959 he acted as a NSW Supreme Court judge for six months. He was again appointed acting judge in 1962, relieving the ailing Justice Bill Dovey and became a permanent judge in November that year. In 1969 Moffitt went to the NSW Court of Appeal.^[2]

In 1973 he was appointed to head a royal commission investigating allegations of organised crime in licensed clubs in NSW. The royal commission uncovered apparent links between the American Mafia and local organised crime figures such as Sydney's "Mr Big", Lenny McPherson and the involvement of organised crime groups in the growing trade in illegal drugs especially heroin. It also investigated the activities (and alleged Mafia links) of the Bally poker machine company, the major supplier of gaming equipment to licenced clubs.

In 1974 Moffitt became president of the NSW Appeals Court. He was awarded the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1979 Queen's Birthday Honours and, later, the medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).^[3]

Moffitt retired from the Supreme Court in June 1984, on reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. The following year, he published a book on organised crime, A Quarter to Midnight, which claimed that organsied crime in Australia was far more extensive than governments were prepared to admit, that the National Crime Authority was a "lame duck" and that the close ties between the trade union movement and ALP governments was hindering the investigation of criminal activity in unions.^[4]

In 1998 he wrote a book on the drug problem, Drug Precipice, and followed by another book on the same subject, Drug Alert, a simpler exposition of the problem.

In 1999 he publicly criticised the opening of a legal heroin injection room in Kings Cross, Sydney and in 2000 he publicly commented that the prosecution of alleged World War II war criminal Konrad Kalejs was unrealistic.

In his last public address, in 2006, to the professional club, Probus, Moffitt revealed that the late crime boss Lenny McPherson had been a paid informant to his 1973-74 royal commission.^[5]

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Moffitt, Athol Randolph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Australian judge and non-fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH	1914
PLACE OF BIRTH	Australia
DATE OF DEATH	2007
PLACE OF DEATH	Australia