Devastating blow for Kristina Keneally’s son: Ex-politician’s cop son Daniel is found GUILTY of cop fabrication
The son of former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has learned his fate following allegations he fabricated a police statement that wrongly landed a man behind bars.
Police alleged that Daniel John Keneally falsified an official report in 2021 about a phone call he received while working as a police officer at the Newtown Police Station.
The court was previously told that Keneally claimed the caller, Luke Moore, had threatened that he wanted a rural detective ‘dead’ and ‘virtually gone’.
Daniel Keneally is seen wearing a black tie leaving Downing Center Court earlier this year. He has been found guilty of making up a police statement that landed a man in jail
Mr Moore is the founder of the website I Sue Police and was held in custody for three weeks after the 12-minute phone call before a recording cleared his name.
The charges were dropped and the state apologized before the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission charged Constable Keneally.
On Tuesday, Mr Keneally was found guilty at Downing Center Local Court of fabricating false evidence with intent to deceive a judicial tribunal.
Magistrate Rodney Brender presided over the sentence after also hearing a two-day hearing into the allegation at the same court in September.
Lawyer Paul McGirr argued earlier during the hearing that Mr Keneally had inadvertently confused the phone call with material from Mr Moore’s website.
Daniel Keneally’s mother Kristina Keneally has left politics after a long career in NSW and federal politics. She has not commented on the charges against her son
Crown prosecutor Daniel Boyle has previously argued in court that the phone call, as stated in Mr Keneally’s statement, was “completely wrong” and “did not take place”.
Mr Keneally admitted in court that there were significant differences between the statement and the recorded conversation, and that he had been ‘incoherent’.
Officer Keneally’s mother was the first female Premier of NSW from 2009 to 2011.
She was a member of the Federal Senate from 2018 to 2022, but left politics after a failed attempt to win a seat in the House of Commons last year.
Mr Keneally will appear again in the same court for sentencing later this year. He was suspended with pay from the NSW Police Force.