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AFP Officer JAILED for Lying Under Oath · The Slippery Slope

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Hi, I'm Jay Fallon, and this is the slippery slope.
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So let's look at this article. It's titled Australian Federal
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Police Detective gaoled after admitting to lying under oath
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about evidence. This article here comes from the
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ABC. There's a picture here of this
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police officer. So what's happened is Trent
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Maders gave sworn evidence in 2020 that he later admitted was
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false, pleading guilty to perjury in the ACT Supreme Court
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after being charged in 2024. Maders was a senior Australian
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Federal Police detective. Was today a sentence.
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This was a couple of days ago, now today's sentenced to gaol
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for the crime, which the judge described as a tragic
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misjudgment. I think that's a tragic
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understatement. OK so matters has been suspended
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from duty since 20/24. He was suspended to a year in in
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prison to be suspended after four months.
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So get into the article. So he's a senior AFP detective
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who admitted to lying underoath about evidence seized during a
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criminal investigation. He's going to be spending, he
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will spend four months behind bars.
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Trent Matters, he's 52, pleaded guilty to a court to a count of
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perjury in that he knowingly made false statements in legal
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proceedings in August of 2020. In handing down his sentence in
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the ACT, Supreme Court Justice David Mossop said matters
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conduct reflected a tragic misjudgment.
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The perjury was career destroying.
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Well, when your when your whole career is based on telling the
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truth and uncovering the truth, it should be destroying.
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So it was career destroying and much more serious than the
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conduct it was trying to hide. That's what the justice said.
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He said matters undermined the proper administration of justice
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and had an impact on the perception of police being
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honest and reliable. Yes, indeed.
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So matters was the officer in charge of the 2019 investigation
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into identical twin brothers, Joshua, who was also an AFP
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officer, and Keenan Tiffin, who were accused of secretly filming
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female tenants at a Canberra property they owned.
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Oh my goodness, OK. So during the investigation,
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police seized a mobile phone and laptop which was which were
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required to be examined within 30 days unless an extension was
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granted. Matters did not seek an
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extension, was later told by AFP digital forensic staff that the
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devices had not been examined within the required time frame.
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But when the admissibility of the evidence was challenged in
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the ACT Magistrates Court in 2020, Matters gave sworn
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evidence that he'd been assured the devices had been examined in
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time. Why would you even lie about
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that? It's so easy to uncover, OK?
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He maintained the account that account under cross examination
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despite being confronted with emails showing otherwise, and
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has since admitted those statements were knowingly false.
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My goodness. The Tiffin brothers were
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initially found guilty in 2022 but successfully appealed their
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convictions after evidence obtained from the laptop was
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ruled unlawful. The case was sent back to the
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ACT Magistrates Court and the brothers were found guilty again
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in September 2025 of attempting to capture indecent visual data.
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That's disgusting. And these, you know, matters.
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And the younger guy? AFP officers.
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OK, so prosecutors. Keegan Law Lee argued Matters
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lies were deliberately told, repeated and maintained.
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This is an offence that strikes at the heart of the
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administration of justice, he told the court.
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So the defence barrister said matters admitted his offending
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was the dumbest thing he has ever done.
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It's an understatement buddy. He is remorseful, he has
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demonstrated insight, he has taken accountability, she said.
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She described matters as an overworked officer who was
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experiencing significant stress, pressure and fatigue due to his
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time in the police force in the ACT.
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The court heard it was likely he would need to be transferred to
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a faraway NSW Correctional Facility if a gaol sentence was
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imposed. But Miss Morrow argued he would
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be exposed to a heightened level of risk as any police officer.
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Whoever has to go to gaol, come on lady.
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Heightened level of risk in any prison due to the national media
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attention he received through his involvement investigating
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Brittany Higgins rape allegation.
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Oh my goodness gets worse. Justice Mossop sentenced him to
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almost a year in prison to be suspended after four months,
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after which he will be subject to good behaviour order.
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Matters has been suspended from duty within the AFP since he was
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charged in 2024. In a statement, the AFP said
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Matters was still subject to an internal investigation into his
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conduct. OK, so now let me give you my
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opinion on this. Oh my goodness, my head's
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exploding after reading all this.
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Because this case, you know, obviously it's a touch bigger
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than one AFP detective lying underoath.
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This is a symptom of a deeper cultural, the deeper cultural
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rot inside our institutions, which is what I've been talking
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about for years now. An Australian Federal Police
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officer, a detective, gaoled lying underoath about evidence.
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You think about that. The AFP supposed to be the gold
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standard of policing in this country.
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They're the ones who investigate corruption, terrorism, organised
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crime. So do state police.
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But when you're talking about national organisations that
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being investigated, national corruption or national crimes, a
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lot of the time the international crimes, it all
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comes back to AFP leading the charge.
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They're the ones other agencies often look to for leadership.
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And yet here we have an AFP officer who didn't just, he
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didn't just make a mistake, didn't just misremember
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something. He lied underoath, he lied in
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court, he lied in a sworn statement.
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He lied in a way that could have destroyed someone's life.
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This is it's not a paperwork error.
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It's and it isn't a training issue.
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This is deliberately deliberate deception by someone entrusted
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with enormous power. And he's, I suppose the
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uncomfortable truth. It's it doesn't just happen.
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It didn't just happen in a vacuum.
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When a police officer lies underoath, it tells you
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something about the culture they come from.
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Because no officer wakes up 1 morning and suddenly decides to
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fabricate evidence or mislead a court.
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That behaviour grows in an environment where accountability
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is weak, leadership is complacent.
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Remember, we're talking about AFP.
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Officer accountability is weak, leadership is complacent.
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Integrity is optional. AFP and the culture rewards
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results over truth. This is exactly what we've been
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seeing across multiple policing agencies in Australia, not just
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the AFP. Whether it's officers falsifying
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affidavits, manipulating evidence, abusing emergency
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powers or hiding misconduct. But behind internal processes,
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the patent is the same. The institution protects itself
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1st and the public second. Speaking of protecting
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themselves, I'm still waiting to hear to find out about the
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outcome of those two serious incidents involving police in
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cans that are covered on on this podcast on the sloppy soap.
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Remember, one of them showed reckless, A reckless act where
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an innocent female bystander was shot.
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You know, police were just spraying bullets everywhere.
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They found bullets in cars that have been driving by in, in
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houses on in walls, on houses. A female standing there at the
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front door was shot. And the offender who they were
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trying to hit, he eventually got shot in the backside, I believe.
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And then the other one was the death of the 71 year old woman
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who was trying to cross the road and she was allowed to cross the
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road. It was a green light, 71 years
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old. The police made a turn that they
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shouldn't have made because they were looking to arrest someone
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who, you know, was just sitting there inside the road and they
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struck her. And yet from QPS silence,
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there's no updates. As far as in when I'm recording
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this, I can't find any updates. No transparency, no
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accountability. They always talk about
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transparency and accountability, yet nothing.
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This is exactly what I'm talking about.
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When police make catastrophic mistakes, the public gets
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silence. When police lie underoath, the
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public gets silence. When police kill innocent
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people, the public gets silence. When the institution's
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reputation is at stake, suddenly, suddenly they move
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quickly. Suddenly they act decisively.
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Suddenly they care. Remember the poor police officer
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that got shot? Was it Mariba?
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No. Maryborough down South.
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Very. I mean, great news that he's
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alive, that he that he's all well.
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But mate, they came out with an abundance of information.
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They told you the whole story. The whole story was out there.
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They had a plethora of information to share, to tell.
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Yeah, but when they've done, they've made a mistake, killed
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someone, shot innocent people. There's nothing to tell.
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Nothing. This is the slippery slope
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inside policing. Once truth becomes flexible,
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once integrity becomes negotiable, once accountability
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becomes selective, then corruption isn't an anomaly,
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it's inevitable. So The thing is, if one officer
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is willing to lie underoath, you can guarantee he is not the only
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one. He's just the one who got
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caught. Because lying underoath is never
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a first offence. It's the end result.
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Usually my opinion, it's the end result of a long chain of
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smaller compromises. Remember, Proverbs 2912 says if
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a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.
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This is how we are in Australia now.
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When leadership tolerates dishonesty, dishonesty spreads.
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When leadership rewards results instead of righteousness,
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corruption becomes normal. And that is what I think we are
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currently seeing. This AFP case isn't just one
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detective. That's what I'd be willing to
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bet. It's about.
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A culture that allowed this behaviour to grow.
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All this matters because when police lie, justice collapses.
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When police lie, innocent people suffer.
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When police lie when they're not really transparent, the public
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loses trust. When a tragedy happens, an
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innocent bystander is shot, or an innocent 71 year old female
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is killed by a police car, and yet nothing happens.
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Nothing's told that there's no, you know, no one answers for
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these things. The public loses trust.
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There's no transparency. When trust collapses, the entire
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system collapses and then these police institutions can only
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blame themselves. This is their institutions decay
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from the inside, not through dramatic scandals, but through
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quiet repeated compromises that eventually become normal.
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So unless policing leadership, I should say management because we
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don't have a lot of leadership within policing or government in
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Australia. So when policing management
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slash pretend leadership in this country confronts this head on.
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So unless they do, we're going to see more cases like this and
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not fewer. But hey, that's just my opinion.
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I'm still just Jay Fallon. And thanks for listening to the
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Slippery Slope podcast. Also I do have a new song coming
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out later this week I believe on the 30th of August.
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New version of Create the Sun. Put a link up for it, check it
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out. Thanks for listening.
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