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AAP
AAP
National
Neve Brissenden

Famed Cleo cop failings laid out by corruption watchdog

Detective Cameron Blaine was stood down after the corruption watchdog launched an investigation. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS)

WHO IS HE?

* WA Police homicide squad Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine, 50, was among the officers who found four-year-old Cleo Smith after she was abducted by Terrence Kelly in October 2021.

* Footage of Det Blaine asking Cleo her name to which she responded: "My name is Cleo" was beamed around the world. 

* He was stood down in September last year after the corruption watchdog launched an investigation into alleged misconduct and formally resigned on Wednesday.

WHAT THE CCC INVESTIGATION FOUND

* The Crime and Corruption Comission made a finding of serious misconduct against Det Blaine in its report handed down on Thursday.

* The findings related to the repeated disclosure of confidential information to journalists, and the repeated misuse of a police vehicle.

THE CONFIDENTIAL DISCLOSURES

* Det Blaine is alleged to have begun an intimate relationship with an anonymised 22-year-old female reporter (named Ms A in the report) about the time Cleo was found.

* Ms A gave evidence Det Blaine leaked her sensitive information about the investigation into Cleo's disappearance.

* The leaks included information about the apparent behaviour of persons of interest, the route taken by Kelly and his prior offending, Cleo's sleeping bag not being recovered, the use of police investigative methodologies and threats against police.

* Det Blaine also sent Ms A a photo of the Carnarvon operation room, which the CCC found was "improper".

* It found he had leaked information about other investigations to journalists.

* In another incident the detective filmed a father finding out his wife and children had been killed and sent the video to Ms A.

* As part of that investigation he took photographs of the inside of the vehicle showing the bodies and showed them to Ms A.

*He also told Ms A the ages and gender of the victims, information not known to the media at the time.

* Det Blaine showed Ms A body-worn footage of an investigator walking through a murder crime scene. The footage contained graphic details.

* He also told another journalist details about where a body was found in a separate murder investigation.

* The watchdog found Ms A had done nothing wrong.

* "DSS Blaine had an obligation to keep matters confidential and failed to do so."

THE POLICE VEHICLE MISUSE

* Det Blaine was also found to have used police vehicles 62 times for non-police purposes.

* He drove the car to Ms A's home and another woman's home a number of times and stayed several hours.

* He also drove the car to pub, coffee shops, Ms A's mother's house and sporting events.

HIS DEFENCE

* Det Blaine gave evidence, which the CCC accepts, that he suffers from PTSD.

* During examination, his "nearly universal response" to a specific allegation of disclosing confidential information was a lack of memory.

* He denies his relationship with Ms A was intimate, and says a number of things told to her and another journalist he considered were "off the record".

* The CCC recovered both Ms A's and Det Blaine's phones and found "the totality of his messages to Ms A paints a different picture".

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