Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius (left) pictured with Victorian Equal Opportunity Human Rights Commissioner Kate Jenkins and Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in 2015 after its report into sexual harassment in the police force was handed down. Credit:Justin McManus What started as coaxing from his colleagues trying to confirm his sexuality, morphed into a mission to establish beyond doubt that he was gay. In 2014, three-and-a-half years after resigning, Mr Maynes took his own life, sparking an intense coronial and internal police investigation into what he had experienced. It was an investigation prompted by the force's own – serving officers who ignored an entrenched lore of staunch silence to call for an inquiry into the insidious homophobia Mr Maynes had disclosed to them as a constable at a station in Melbourne's outer east. Though the coronial investigation did not find the gay former policeman took his own life over the bullying, it accepted he was subjected to "unwarranted and inappropriate comments and behaviours by certain members of Victoria Police".

Michael Maynes at his graduation in 2009. Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius, the policeman leading mammoth cultural change in the force, put it more bluntly. "He was treated terribly," Mr Cornelius said. Rob Maynes says his late son Michael dreamed of being in the police force. Credit:Joe Armao "He was the subject of homophobic behaviour that was back then and is absolutely now completely unacceptable.

"We are deeply sorry." Michael Maynes and his father Robert on his graduation day. Credit:Victoria Police Mr Maynes' father Robert Maynes strongly believes that what his eldest son went through in the force contributed to his suicide and was the catalyst for his spiral into mental illness and drug-taking after he resigned. "The police force started the ball rolling. They started it. Michael was never on drugs, never had an issue until he joined the police force and it just snowballed," he said. Mr Maynes' death prompted an internal and coronial investigation. Credit:Anna Sublet

The Michael Maynes story is well known in Victoria Police's LGBTI community, some of whose members were serving police when homosexuality was decriminalised, when gay bashings occurred, and during the targeted raid of the Tasty Nightclub in Flinders Lane. But we are not talking about the 1980s or even 1990s; the coronial and internal police investigation that followed the 30-year-old's death probed the culture Mr Maynes experienced in his short time in the force between 2008 and 2011. Mr Maynes joined the police force at 24, a job his father said he had dreamed of doing. "He loved it. He absolutely loved it," Robert said. "But it became torture. It was just torture for him every day going to work."

A senior policeman who acted as Mr Maynes' peer support officer told the coronial inquiry that what started in the outer eastern suburbs station as snide remarks like "That's a nice haircut. The boys down at Pride March will like that" morphed into daily references to "faggots", "poofters" or being gay. "Although he did consider being more open, the relentless and intrusive curiosity of some members made him fear their reaction if he actually admitted his orientation," he said. This, a gay policeman told The Age, is a common experience. "If you're out and confident often the path is easier. If you're private, if you're not sure, if you're insecure, you'll be forced to come out." In a diary the Mr Maynes kept, he wrote about a colleague calling the Pride March "sick" and "people don't need to see this shit". He also detailed another occasion where a senior constable had said: "You're gay, you've got AIDS. You're going to die alone." Neither of his diary entries could be substantiated.

There were more serious allegations. Another policeman who gave a statement said an information report was submitted from police in the eastern suburbs who said Mr Maynes was seen at a "known homosexual beat" in his private car. The "valueless" report was considered "gratuitous and homophobic" by the police's internal watchdog, the Professional Standards Command, the policeman said. Then, while Mr Maynes was still in the force, he drove through a roadside breath testing site in the eastern suburbs without stopping, telling colleagues he believed it was a traffic accident. He was issued with an infringement notice for failing to stop, but without the input or notification of Professional Standards, which is against police policy. He was then charged with refusing a breath test, despite Mr Maynes saying he was never asked to undergo one, in a move another policeman said was an "abuse of process". One member was disciplined over the allegation. Overall, seven accused members were questioned after Mr Maynes' death, including a former Professional Standards investigator who lived in Mr Maynes' street the suburb over from the station. He was charged with unauthorised access to the police's internal database to look up Mr Maynes and his housemates 359 times. The case against him was later dropped and the officer resigned. By the time Mr Maynes took sick leave in 2010 over the bullying, he had become a "problem" to police in his division and he transferred to Melbourne North, where there were other gay members.

He told the peer support officer he was "finally enjoying his work" and one of his new bosses described him as an "exuberant, quick-witted, and intelligent individual" who was respected by his peers professionally and socially. "He started expressing delight in his work for the first time. He loved catching crooks," another policeman said. It was when he was at Melbourne North that he received the infringement notices over the roadside breath test and Mr Maynes pleaded guilty and resigned. "He steadfastly maintained that he had done nothing wrong but felt completely worn down by everything that had happened," the peer support officer said. On his last day as a Victorian policeman, Mr Maynes wrote a farewell email to his colleagues at Melbourne North.

"My decision to leave Victoria Police was made more difficult due to the implausibly positive, passionate and supportive environment at Melbourne North," he wrote. "I hope environments at stations like Melbourne North have the ability to become the dominant culture across the organisation." Mr Maynes moved to the Northern Territory with a boyfriend and started to use the drug ice. In 2014, three-and-a-half years later, he took his own life. In an unusually emotional statement, one of the senior officers Mr Maynes disclosed the bullying to said he was deeply distressed he didn't lodge a complaint without his consent. "I wonder if that course would have resulted in a different outcome. I know that I cannot undo the decisions I made not to breach that request ... I was trying to engender Michael's trust in me and the system. Any trust that I was trying to build would have been destroyed had I lodged a complaint without consent," he wrote.

Mr Cornelius is leading Victoria Police's response to the Human Rights Commission's review into sexual discrimination, harassment and predatory behaviour in the force, which includes the vilification of LGBTI members. In 2015, more than a thousand Victorian police participated in a national survey on LGBTI workplace inclusion. It found 70 per cent of respondents experienced some form of negative gay commentary or joke, 20 per cent had witnessed or were made aware of serious homophobic bullying at work, while 11 per cent said they experienced harassment because of their orientation in the past year. Mr Cornelius said there were police still in Victoria who had a "jaundiced and inappropriate" views about the LGBTI people in the police force and the wider community. "We have an absolute commitment to being very clear to our workforce at large that these behaviours won't be tolerated and these people will be held to account," he said. "There is no place for them in Victoria Police."

Mr Cornelius said Victoria Police expect to release an LGBTI inclusion strategy and action plan on the International Day Against Homophobia in May. He said it was incumbent on all members to call out homophobia. "These behaviours invariably happen within the hearing and in the presence of other people ... It needs to be called out in the moment. The individual that's doing it needs to be made to feel very uncomfortable and needs to be held to account," he said. Loading For support or advice, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Victoria Police's Welfare Services provide confidential support to all employees and their immediate families 24 hours a day on (03) 9247 3344.