Monday, July 25, 2011

Mark Standen allegedly 'lied without pause'

 July 25, 2011 1:44PM

FORMER NSW crime fighter Mark Standen transparently "lied without pause" during the 25 days he was in the witness box at his drugs trial, a jury has been told.

Crown Prosecutor Tim Game SC said Standen told "many, many, many demonstrable lies over many days".

Mr Game was beginning the Crown's final address on Monday at Standen's trial in the NSW Supreme Court, which began in March.

Standen, 54, a former assistant director at the NSW Crime Commission, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with drug dealer turned informant James Kinch and foodstuffs businessman Bakhos "Bill" Jalalaty, between early 2006 and June 2008, to import pseudoephedrine, which is used to make the drugs speed and ice.

He also has denied taking part in the supply of 300kg of the substance and conspiring to pervert the course of justice by using his knowledge to frustrate a drug importation prosecution.

Mr Game noted that Standen gave evidence-in-chief over 16 days and was cross-examined for eight or nine days.

"It is not a nice thing to say, but he lied without pause for 25 days and transparently so," he said.

Standen had also lied "many, many times" in his police record of interview, he added.

Mr Game said the Crown case in respect to how all this developed went back to 2003 when an improper relationship began between Standen and Kinch.

Kinch was arrested in 2003 in Sydney for drug and proceeds of crime offences.

He left the country after charges against him were dropped and he forfeited more than $900,000 to the Commission.

"By the time of his arrest, Mr Kinch was a major international drug trafficker," Mr Game said.

Kinch had manipulated the system successfully and Standen had been doing everything he could to help him, Mr Game told the court.

The trial is continuing before Justice Bruce James.

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