Up to 100 suspects in cases involving gay men being thrown off cliffs and killed in Sydney in the 1980s were not pursued by police, an inquiry has been told.
Those identified by NSW Police as "persons of interest" were also not questioned by strike force officers who re-investigated the attacks.
Peter Gray, counsel assisting the special commission of inquiry into historical LGBTIQ hate crimes, grilled a homicide squad detective about the lapse during a hearing in Sydney on Tuesday.
"There doesn't seem to be any reference to any attempt to pursue any of the 50 to 100 persons of interest, does there?" he asked.
"No," retired senior detective Michael Willing replied.
Strike Force Neiwand, overseen by Mr Willing in October 2015, was set up to re-examine deaths that occurred in the Bondi area between 1985 and 1990, when gay men were targeted, assaulted and forced off cliff tops by gangs of youths.
The covert operation was prompted after leads from ongoing investigations in another Strike Force, codenamed Macnamir, emerged.
Macnamir was established in February 2013 to reopen the cold case 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 before the case was reopened in 2012 after pressure from his family.
A coroner in 2017 determined the matter involved human intervention.
In separate incidents, Ross Warren, John Russell, and Frenchman Giles Mattaini were found dead near a popular gay beat at Marks Park in Bondi in Sydney's east.
"Under the heading 'person of interest', we see the words 'none known at this stage'. That's not exactly right is it?" Mr Gray said, reading from Neiwand case files.
"That's incorrect, yes," Mr Willing replied.
Mr Gray pointed to other factual inaccuracies, including the record of Mr Mattaini's death.
Investigating officers recorded the 27-year-old was last seen in McKenzie's Point in Bondi, whereas he was previously listed as last seen in nearby Tamarama, also in the east.
"The very first sentence is wrong, isn't it?" Mr Gray asked.
"Not from my understanding," Mr Willing replied.
"Does that trouble you that after all this time somebody sits down to write a summary of the post-operational assessment and gets the very first sentence wrong?" Mr Gray said.
"It's not very good isn't it?"
Mr Willing replied: "No".
Commissioner John Sackar - who is overseeing the inquiry investigating unsolved LGBTIQ deaths in NSW between 1970 and 2010 - interjected "it hardly smacks of a re-investigation".
In another tense moment of questioning, Mr Willing bristled when Judge Sackar said "it's a remarkable admission if those things (interviews with suspects) had been done".
Mr Gray asserted that was a "deliberate decision" by Neiwand investigators but Mr Willing said "I can't say one way or the other".
Then-senior deputy coroner Jacqueline Milledge in 2005 said the three men's deaths were not accidental, adding that previous police investigations were "not quite adequate" and "disgraceful".
"Many of the Marks Park victims that reported to police told of hearing their assailants threatening to throw them off the cliff," Mr Gray said.
"This was the modus operandi of some gay-hate assailants ... this strongly supports the probability that Mr Warren, Mr Mattaini and Mr Russell met their deaths this way."
The persons of interest at the time were aged between 16 and 18.
Later, Mr Gray argued that Strike Force Neiwand contradicted the coroner's findings by classifying the causes of death as "undetermined".
"It didn't cross your mind that those conclusions were unjustified?" Mr Gray asked.
"I was surprised at those conclusions," Mr Willing replied.
"Whether they were justified or not justified is something that didn't actively cross my mind. I didn't have an opinion one way or the other, to be honest."
Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Crandell has previously admitted past police indifference to gay bashings, along with a tacit social tolerance of homophobia, reflected attitudes at the time.
The inquiry continues.
