NSW Police have launched a sweeping review of hundreds of unsolved murders in response to the special commission of inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes.
Task Force Atlas, established to address the inquiry’s recommendations, is currently auditing 213 cases from 1970 to 2010. Of these, detectives have been assigned to 117 cases, with 50 investigations already completed.

Seven cases have been flagged for re-investigation, including two identified as potentially hate crime-related.
Detective Chief Superintendent Grant Taylor described the task force as a historic commitment, with 25 detectives assigned to the operation.
“We’re picking through every single bit of the material, archive records and exhibits and seeing with fresh eyes whether we can elicit any new evidence and bring those to some sort of fruition,” Taylor told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Michael Woodhouse, chief executive of health organisation ACON and co-chair of the NSW Police LGBTQIA+ consultative committee, commended the force for their commitment.
“The police have begun extensive work investigating historical crimes since accepting the recommendation of the special inquiry,” Woodhouse told Gay Sydney News.
“The response of Task Force Atlas will deliver benefit to anyone that has a loved one that is subject of a unsolved homicide and that includes gay and transgender people. Everyone will get something out of this.”
Woodhouse noted that discussions with police indicated a serious approach to addressing historical biases that may have hampered past investigations.
“The NSW Police have also committed to ensuring that the officers working on Task Force Atlas have a good appreciation of the context and the people involved in the matters they are investigating,” he said.
The NSW Police Force has introduced new hate crime training to better equip officers. More than 100 personnel, including all those involved with Task Force Atlas, have enrolled in a 12-week course co-designed by the University of Technology Sydney.
The course, “Policing Hate Crime”, focuses on understanding conscious and unconscious bias and its effects on investigations.
Woodhouse believes these initiatives could help rebuild trust between the LGBTQIA+ community and law enforcement.
“Our communities expect that all homicides will be fully investigated to provide justice to the victims’, their loved ones and their families,” he said.
“Remedying past bias will go a long way to demonstrating the police’s commitment to improving its relationship with the LGBTI+ community.”
Positive outcomes of the inquiry included two cold cases which are now all but solved due to its work. When it examined the 1993 murder of Crispin Dye, it revealed new DNA evidence that resulted in the identification of another male, who had not been identified at the time. That man is now deceased.
Another murder, that of Ernest Head in 1976, is also believed to have been solved. Initially, it was not ruled a gay hate crime. But the commission found a number of reasons to believe that it was. The case was again matched to a previously unidentified male who left Australia in 1994 and is now also deceased.
Gay Sydney News reporter