The Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police Force has been forced to defend his decision not to ask the state's prosecutors to appeal to the Supreme Court when Man Haron Monis was granted bail a year before the Sydney siege.
"If I'd had the foresight to see what was going to happen 12 months later I would have walked the letter down there and stood outside the [Director of Public Prosecutions] office," Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins told the ongoing inquest into the siege on Wednesday.
The inquest has heard that police investigating Monis over an accessory to murder charge were furious when he was granted bail in December 2013 at Penrith local court.
They felt that the prosecutor who dealt with the bail hearing had failed to put crucial evidence before the court about Monis' bail breaches and the risk he would flee or harm witnesses if released, despite being made fully aware of these issues by police.
After the bail decision, a senior detective, Jason Dickinson, told the head of the homicide squad, Detective Superintendent Michael Willing, about this apparent failure and his desire for the bail decision to be reviewed in the NSW Supreme Court.
Superintendent Willing told the officer to write a draft letter to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, and then brought the matter to the attention of Commissioner Jenkins, telling him in an email that his junior officer believed the DPP solicitor had done "a terrible job" and "wasn't across the brief".
But the inquest heard that when two senior police sat down to discuss the matter a week later they kiboshed the appeal plan.
"Jenkins was of view that sending the letter to the DPP wasn't going to make a difference and that DPP had a position and that was unlikely to change," Superintendent Willing told the inquest.
"I remember he or I saying 'the horse has bolted' on this matter and words to the effect of 'I think we're pushing s--- up a hill' … I think I used that expression," he said.
During stern examinations from counsel assisting the inquest and counsel for the family of siege victim Tori Johnson, Assistant Commissioner Jenkins was forced to repeatedly defend his decision not to pass the letter on to the DPP.
"I was of the view that the Director [of Public Prosecutions] would be advised by the same solicitors who had been in dispute with Detective Dickinson," he said.
"Are you suggesting that the Director wasn't of an independent mind?" counsel representing the Johnson family, Gabrielle Bashir SC said.
"No, I'm not suggesting that," the Assistant Commissioner replied.
"Assistant Commissioner Jenkins, you should have sent that letter to Mr Babb at the DPP," Ms Bashir continued.
"No, my job is to use my experience and judgment to look at this type of matter and that's what I did," the senior officer said.
The inquest continues.
