Constable Trenouth was transferred from Wiluna before the internal investigation began. Credit:Facebook "It just highlights the blasé attitude to Aboriginal people in this state and in this country when it is a psychological neglect of our mob and an injustice and discriminatory action against our people, like in the cases of Mr Spratt being Tasered or Mr Ward dying in the back of a prison van from overheating. "It's just another example that society does not care about Aboriginal people and it cannot go on being tolerated." Mr Quigley, one of the police force's most outspoken critics, yesterday branded Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan "the worst commissioner in the country" over the handling of the Kevin Spratt affair. Under Parliamentary privilege, he accused the state's top police officer of fabricating a "litany of lies" to justify the brutal Tasering of Mr Spratt, an Aboriginal man, 14 times while in police custody.

One of the images posted as a profile photo on Constable Trenouth's Facebook page. Original image pixellated to protect the victim's identity. Mr Quigley said WAtoday.com.au's story demonstrated another example of police abuses with "racial overtones", which could not go ignored just because the people involved lived in a remote and isolated part of Western Australia. He called the conduct "disgusting" and pointed out that the officer in question was only stood down after the matter was brought to light by WAtoday.com.au. "This officer for his disgraceful conduct should be suspended immediately pending a proper and thorough criminal investigation," he said. "It is not to be left to the fact that the victims are so unsophisticated in white man's law that they don't know how to protect themselves and for what I have read on the WAtoday.com.au site (this) displays all of the hallmarks of another police cover-up of possible criminal behaviour.

For what I have read on the WAtoday.com.au site (this) displays all of the hallmarks of another police cover-up of possible criminal behaviour. "I will lodge an official complaint with Mr Mick Gooda of the National Human Rights Commission for Indigenous Affairs. "This is appalling abuse of unsophisticated indigenous people by police bullies and I personally feel sickened by what they have done." Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan today defended allowing the officer to remain on active duty for the past two months while he was being investigated. "We got extra information yesterday, which led me to stand the officer down as soon as that information was available," he said.

Mr Quigley said the photos clearly breached Section 81 of the Criminal Code Act of 1913 which deals with disclosing official secrets by a public servant. The Act says it is illegal to make an unauthorised disclosure, where "the disclosure by a person who is a public servant or government contractor of official information in circumstances where the person is under a duty not to make the disclosure". That person "who, without lawful authority, makes an unauthorised disclosure is guilty of a crime and is liable to imprisonment for three years or a summary conviction penalty of imprisonment for 12 months and a fine of $12,000". He likened the taking of the photographs of the drunken men inside a Wiluna police cell to going into a mental health facility and taking photographs of residents who may not be sufficiently aware of their surroundings. "There are a number of provisions in the Criminal Code to outlaw this conduct and if the police fail to charge this officer with a criminal offence they are going to have a lot of explaining to do," he said.

"The days of police cover-up in Western Australia continue, but I will always struggle for justice of the individual in the face of a police cover-up." The men in the photographs were not aware of Facebook until they were informed by police internal investigators. The men are Western Desert people, who go "walkabout" for most of the year and live on the outskirts of one of the most isolated towns in the state. Wiluna is on the edge of the desert and has population of Aboriginal residents that fluctuates between 200 and 600. Wiluna's main Western Desert tribe, the Martu people, were made famous by the film Rabbit Proof Fence, which told of three Martu girls who escaped a church mission and made a perilous journey along the fence to get home to the community of Jigalong. Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said the Facebook matter was "extremely disturbing".

Ms Quirk said while the matter was currently under internal investigation, "it was hard to contemplate any mitigating circumstances for the outrageous conduct". She said she had raised her concerns about police officers using Facebook with senior police in the past. "The instances I raised pale in insignificance when compared with this case," she said. "As well as the issue of airing official information, the breach of privacy and ignoring official directives about the use of Facebook, this case involves even more startling clear racist overtones. "As part of recruitment training, police officers are given a four-day course on diversity and a component of that relates to Aboriginal culture. The Senior Constable's actions and attitude raise the question about whether he received this training and also suggests he was not suitable to work in remote Western Australia.

"Internal investigations and the CCC must determine whether he is to continue in the WA police force altogether." Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chairman Marc Newhouse said the incident showed racism was a serious issue in the police force. Loading "There needs to be a much more thorough assessment done on attitudes to minority groups and this is why we've been calling for an inquiry into police services, so that all of these practices can go under the microscope," he told the ABC. Follow WAtoday on Twitter @WAtoday