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Two Former Queensland Police Officers Face the Courts · The Slippery Slope

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  All right, so two stories to get through here, both regarding
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  Queensland Police. Two former Queensland Police
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  officers will tell you one of them is so disappointing.
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  So disappointing. Anyway, let's check out this
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  first story. OK, first one, this will just be
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  a quick episode. Former senior Mackay police
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  officer sentenced of a child abuse material.
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  This is pretty shocking, I've got to be honest.
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  I anyway a former senior Queensland Police officer so he
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  will serve three months in jail. Seems a little light the
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  sentencing anyway. So three months in jail after
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  accessing extreme Child Exploitation material through
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  the darknet. The Mackay District Court heard
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  Mark Andrew Lewa, 52, had engaged in the illicit material
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  between August 2021 and March 2024.
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  He is a father of three. He pleaded guilty to 1 count of
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  possessing Child Exploitation material and one count of using
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  a carriage service to access child abuse material.
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  Judge Susan Sheridan handed down an 18 month sentence due to the
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  prolonged and serious nature of the offending, directing lua
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  serve a period of three months in jail before 2 years of
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  probation. Personally, that sentence feels
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  seems a little light considering, you know, the new
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  laws that have been passed recently and the sentences that
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  they were they, they're talking about for these things.
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  And yet Child Exploitation done over several years, three months
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  in jail. I think they, they need to
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  really hand down sentences that really strike fear in people's
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  hearts. That's what you need.
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  That's just my opinion. So prosecutor Grace Ollison said
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  authorities had been alerted to profiles in a darknet site
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  appearing to contain Louis name backwards and numbers relating
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  to his police badge number. Wow, that is just, sorry, that's
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  dumb, that is dumb. Allison said the police searched
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  the then senior sergeant's Mccly house on March 4/20/24.
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  He resigned from the force shortly afterwards, resigned in
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  disgrace. The court heard Lure had been
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  cooperative with police, handing over devices and passwords, but
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  that he claimed he didn't did not know viewing the material
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  was an offence. Senior Sergeant didn't know
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  that. Wow.
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  OK, so is he saying he should never have been a senior
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  Sergeant? Because dude, you, you mightn't
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  realise, but if you're out there, but if you're a senior
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  Sergeant in the Queensland Police Service, you have a lot
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  of experience. A lot, lots of experience, OK.
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  You don't just get to senior Sergeant overnight.
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  You, you know, there's no one in senior Sergeant who's only got
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  5-10 years experience. You, you're like a, a 20 year
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  plus. So Allison said a not
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  insignificant amount of material, including 82 images of
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  sexually sexual activity. I don't want to go into all that
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  self denial. Defence solicitor Greg McGuire
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  argued the web pages containing the two were were not frequently
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  closed by his defendant, which had skewed the site visitation
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  numbers in that it was unknown exactly what had been accessed
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  on the dark the Dark net. McGuire said his client had
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  expressed feelings of regrets, embarrassment, shame and remorse
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  and that media coverage had exacerbated his shame.
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  Of course it did. Of course, what do you think's
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  going to happen? Of course it exacerbates your
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  shame, but that's not that shouldn't be considered for part
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  of the punishment. You need people if you're going
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  to access this kind of material, you need to be punished and
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  punished properly. So he's argued that Lua has
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  already experienced enough punishment.
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  Basically, he's after his arrest.
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  It's a damaged relationships with his friends, former wife
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  and three children. I don't know how you, how your
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  children are going to react over these things anyway.
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  And cost him his job in the police service.
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  Well, yeah, your own actions cost you your job lad.
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  McGuire said that it also become clear during mental evaluations
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  that Lua had experienced a level of self denial and repression of
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  his behaviour and had used the Internet as a form of escapism.
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  The court heard Lua had shown positive steps in rehabilitation
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  with a psychologist. Listen, what blows me away more
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  is that a senior Sergeant in the Queensland Police Service can
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  claim that he did not know viewing the material was an
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  offence. You know, that's either a
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  straight out lie or he is just not an intelligent person, one
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  or the other. And then you've got to if, if,
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  if he didn't know if that's genuine, well, then you've got
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  to ask yourself, how did you become a senior Sergeant in the
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  Queensland Police Service in the first place?
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  You know, standards, standards. I keep sort of talking about how
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  standards have been lowered in the Queensland Police Service.
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  Crikey. Anyway, let's go to the next
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  story and listen to this. This is a bit of shenanigans
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  from this Former QLD policeman Zach Aaron Tudley apologizes for
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  pointing evidence for gambling. Gambling cash?
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  Oh no, I've just realised what this story is about.
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  OK, I remember this now. I remember I did.
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  I talked about this story a couple of years ago when it all
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  came out because it didn't make sense.
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  OK, let's go through this. Former Queensland cop who pawned
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  police evidence to fund his gambling habit has described his
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  actions as a lifelong regrets. Oh OK, he's apologised for
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  bringing the service into disrepute after he after he
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  busted pawning evidence to fund his gambling addiction.
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  Zach Aaron Chudley, 32, told Brisbane Magistrates Court
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  during his sentence on Friday that he was obviously very sorry
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  for his actions. Yeah lad, I'm pretty sure this
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  lad kept denying everything, didn't he?
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  OK, my apologies, I have. I've had to restart this episode
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  again because I've only just realised I was reading the the
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  episode. I was reading the article
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  yesterday and I didn't suddenly when I started going through and
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  I'm like, wait up. That name sounds so familiar.
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  And then I'm like, so I had to stop and I've got to look this
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  up properly and I'm like, that's right.
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  That was this dude. Former cop cleared of stealing
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  luxury watches from a raid. This is Chudley, I didn't story
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  about this a couple of years ago because it all seemed very
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  suspicious. So he's been cleared of this.
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  Apparently he's walked walked free from court after a jury
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  found him not guilty of stealing luxury watches seized in an anti
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  anti gang raid. Zach Aaron Chudley had faced
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  trial in Brisbane District Court this week, accused of taking
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  three luxury watches from an evidence lockup and selling them
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  for jewellery from to a jeweller for more than 90 grand.
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  Oh. Chadley formerly served as a
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  senior Connie in the Queensland Police Crime and Intelligence
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  Command. Not much intelligence getting
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  around in that command, I would say.
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  The the jury members handed them their decision on Wednesday
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  after liberating for four hours. But hey, kind of justice, kind
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  of justice in the long run, I suppose.
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  No one's been caught, put it that way for the for the missing
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  watch going missing. But Zach Chudley gets busted for
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  a couple of phones, lost his job, all that kind of thing.
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  Just some more embarrassing times for the Queensland Police
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  Service and some very, very well the first the first one is
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  extremely disappointing. OK, anything that anything that
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  involves Child Exploitation, Disgusting and very
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  disappointing. That second one is just is just
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  so laughable. But good on QPS for still going
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  after Zach Chudley regardless of the outcome of the other.
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  You know, the luxury watch and that, but they still went after
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  him anyway. Anyway, just a few things to
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  talk about within QPS and the continual disappointment that
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  they are for us as Queenslanders.
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  Hey, this is all my opinion. Please let me know what you
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  think.