04/25/2002 "More than 100 men Melbourne face charges after toilet blitz"

More than 100 men Melbourne face charges after toilet blitz

More than 100 men have been charged with sexual offences after an undercover blitz of a men's toilet in Flinders Street Station, but the operation has sparked allegations of entrapment.

After Operation Dalliance, a two-week investigation that concluded last Sunday, police charged 104 men on summons with 299 offences including indecent assault, obscene exposure, loitering and resisting arrest.

Many of the men are married city office workers and appeared to be using the toilets to solicit sex during their lunch hour.

Superintendent Chris Ferguson of the Transit Safety Division said the operation was launched after police received numerous complaints from commuters about activity in the toilets at the Elizabeth Street end of the platforms.

"Our brief is about protecting the travelling public. We have no intention of beginning any operation against known beats," Superintendent Ferguson said. "This is simply about ensuring those toilets are safe to use for all commuters."

The operation was carried out during the school holidays because of reports of under-age boys prostituting themselves in the toilets.

Superintendent Ferguson said only a few of the men charged were likely to face court. Most would be dealt with in diversion programs.

But Chris Gill, a spokesman for the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, said reports that plainclothes police were used in the operation "were disturbing". Increasing uniformed patrols would have stopped the problem.

Superintendent Ferguson denied any of the offences were initiated by police.

"It's very difficult to observe the kind of behaviour we'd been receiving reports about when you're using uniformed officers," he said. Two of the officers involved were indecently assaulted during the operation.

Peter Horsley, chairman of the police lesbian and gay liaison committee, a group with no formal consultative links with Victoria Police, said the operation was a return to "the Dark Ages".

"If you're trying to catch paedophiles, you don't use 35-year-old undercover police officers," Mr Horsley said. "I received a number of complaints from people who feel that they've been entrapped."