THEY brought the reputation of the NSW Police Service to its knees but there was no stepping back or apologies when they buried the cop who became the symbol of a force gone wrong, Graham ‘‘Chook’’ Fowler.
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For many at the Palmdale Crematorium funeral service on the Central Coast on Thursday, defiance took the place of grief.
The convicted and jailed former NSW policeman Roger Rogerson stood by the body of the former Detective Inspector jailed for his video portrayal of a corrupt cop in the Wood Royal Commission and swore vengeance.
To rising appreciation, Rogerson described Trevor Haken, the former policeman who trapped Fowler into being filmed accepting a bribe, as ‘‘a Judas ... a drunk, a blackmailer, a thief, a wife beater’’ who dobbed in his mates.
Rogerson told mourners that he, former hotelier Steve Farley and former Kings Cross policeman Peter Kelly, had visited Fowler as he lay stricken in his Bateau Bay home two months ago.
They talked, he said, about the ‘‘good old days’’ and the one thing Fowler had wanted was to live long enough to attend Haken’s funeral.
‘‘And I speak for many here when I say that I’m going to make sure I’m around to attend the funeral of that lowest form of life,’’ Rogerson said as the Hillside Chapel erupted in applause.
Fowler, who had been sick for some time, died of bladder cancer aged 69.
He had been the boss of Kings Cross detectives, but achieved notoriety in June 1995 when the Wood Royal Commission watched video footage from a camera placed under the dashboard of a car showing him in his Stubbies pocketing a $1000. His second-in-command, Haken, had rolled over and been secretly recording his mates taking bribes to save his own skin.
About 500 people attended Fowler's funeral service.
The crowd included many friends he made living on the Central Coast in recent years, including a large contingent from the The Entrance Tigers Rugby League Club where Fowler was a committeeman.
There was no condolence book.
But given the number of men in their sixties with large chests that had fallen south, it was clear many former police colleagues had come to bury their mate.
Fowler was born in Lake Born in Lake Cargelligo in 1943, and joined the NSW police service in 1963. He served in Wagga Wagga before becoming joining the CIB and moving to Kings Cross. He married three times and had five children. He ran a delivery business with his wife of 31 years, Sue, on the central Coast. He also fished.
Michael Byrnes, whose father had convinced Fowler to join the service, told mourners his uncle had become the ‘‘poster boy’’ for the Wood Royal Commission.
He said he was ‘‘a hard cop’’ who got a bum rap, a man who had served when the NSW Police Force was far different.
Fowler received a three-year sentence in 2000 with a two-year non-parole period after he was convicted of receiving a bribe and giving false evidence.
Haken is in a witness protection program.
