06/03/2002 "Report on 1970s gay killing to be released"

Report on 1970s gay killing to be released.
A Scotland Yard report into the unsolved murder of George Duncan, whose death 30 years ago led to homosexual law reform in South Australia, is about to be released.

Dr Duncan, a university lecturer, was in an area near the Adelaide University footbridge, then a noted meeting place for homosexuals, on the night of May 10, 1972.

He was set upon by unknown attackers and thrown into the Torrens River, where he drowned.

A lengthy investigation by Detective Chief Superintendent McGowan, of Scotland Yard, led to two South Australian police officers being charged over the attack, but they were later acquitted.

Scotland Yard was called in to undertake the independent inquiry because the allegations were against South Australian police.

SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said yesterday that the McGowan report, completed in October, 1972, had been exempt from public disclosure until now under a provision of the Freedom of Information Act. But that exemption was due to expire in October and the government had decided in
consultation with the opposition, that most, if not all, of the report would soon be released.

This may occur within the next two months, before the October deadline," he told parliament. "Efforts are being made to check exactly what is and is not on the public record, given we have had coroner's
inquiries and a criminal trial since." Mr Atkinson said the public interest had to be taken into account when deciding which parts of the report should be released, as the issue remained extremely sensitive and had the capacity to cause distress and harm to innocent people.
- AAP