Police overlooked ‘compelling’ evidence of homophobia in 1989 murder, landmark NSW inquiry hears

Inquiry into LGBTQ+ hate crimes told a ‘mosaic of motives’ showed anti-gay bias in killing of John Hughes

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Police overlooked “compelling evidence” of homophobia in the brutal 1989 Sydney murder of John Gordon Hughes, the New South Wales special commission of inquiry into LGBTQ+ hate crimes has heard.

In an inquiry described as a world first, this week’s hearings focus on seven deaths previously reviewed by NSW police’s strike force Parrabell in 2018.