A former senior police officer involved in the cold cases of gay men killed in the 1980s has told an inquiry that homophobic attacks were well-known to police.
Current and former senior police are giving evidence to a special inquiry about several strike forces, including Parrabell, Neiwand, Macnamir and Operation Taradale, that examined the cases of nearly 90 LGBTQI people found dead between 1970 and 2010.
Former detective sergeant Stephen Page, who commanded Operation Taradale in 2002, entered the witness box on Tuesday.
Answering Senior Counsel Assisting Peter Gray's pointed questions with short and sharp replies, Mr Page said there were shortcomings in initial police investigations of gay men reportedly killed.
"There should have been alarm bells that there was a problem with assaults on gay men in that era (and) in that area," Mr Page told the inquiry.
"It was prevalent and well-known to police."
Operation Taradale investigated the disappearance and suspected deaths of three gay men - Ross Warren, John Russell and French national Giles Mattaini - in the 1980s in Bondi.
Mr Page also worked with the family of US mathematician Scott Johnson, who was found dead at the bottom of cliffs at Manly in northern Sydney in 1988.
His death was initially ruled a suicide, only for police to reopen the case in 2012 after pressure from his family.
In the NSW Supreme Court last Thursday, Scott White pleaded guilty to Mr Johnson's manslaughter.
The inquiry has previously heard throwing gay men off cliffs near "beats" was a common tactic among assailants.
Competing investigations shifted responsibility and assigned blame to certain officers, including Mr Page, without getting to the bottom of how these men were killed, the witness said.
Mr Page rejected the characterisation by covert operation Neiwand that Taradale had "tunnel vision".
"You're aware that Neiwand ... accuses you of deliberately withholding evidence from the coroner, is that true?" Mr Gray asked.
"No," Mr Page replied.
Detective Sergeant Steve Morgan, an investigator with Neiwand, has admitted that criticisms of Taradale were overly harsh and at times misplaced.
"My reputation was absolutely and professionally destroyed ... it feels like I wasted a lot of time with Taradale," Mr Page said.
"A lot of the gains we had along the way were almost for nothing."
But Mr Page also recounted how professional jealousy among police ranks had driven him away from further investigating these deaths.
"I was pushed out of the way so that there could be a free swing at the families, or more the deceased," Mr Page told the inquiry.
Mark Tedeschi, KC, acting for NSW Police, tried to pick holes in Mr Page's testimony, emphasising several times that different police officers could arrive at varying conclusions even when presented with the same evidence.
"Do you accept that minds may differ and that some minds might legitimately prefer the view that it (the death of a victim) was an accidental fall (from a cliff)?" he asked.
"Minds may differ, but I have my own opinion," Mr Page replied.
The inquiry continues.
