Police link to Shirley Finn bullets
Labor MP John Quigley says a senior police officer told him bullets retrieved from Shirley Finn's body matched those from a gun stored in WA Police's firearms branch.
Mr Quigley, who was the WA Police Union lawyer for 25 years between 1976 and 2001, said the claim came from a senior union official and serving police officer in the early 1990s, who he considered reliable.
"During my time as police union lawyer, I was told something by a senior police officer that was disturbing and suggestive of police involvement in the murder," Mr Quigley told The West Australian yesterday.
"There was a match of the bullets back to a weapon that was held or had been held by the firearms branch of WA Police."
The flamboyant brothel madam was shot in the head and found in her car in South Perth on June 23, 1975, in a crime that has dogged the WA establishment ever since.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Detectives at Shirley Finn's South Perth home. Picture: File
New leads into Shirley Finn murder
Mr Quigley's revelation comes a day after _The West Australian _revealed another former officer, Brian, was threatened by fellow officers not to reveal Ms Finn had been with detectives the night she died.
Last night, Ms Finn's daughter Bridget Shewring said Mr Quigley's information heightened the need for police to relinquish a cold case review to the Corruption and Crime Commission or State Coroner.
Mr Quigley said he was not sure whether the gun referred to had been a police-issue weapon or one seized and stored in the firearms branch's safe before or after the murder.
But he said the officer, who he understood to have worked in the firearms branch, had made a "definite inference" that the murderer came from police ranks.
"My understanding from the conversation was that the murderer was a policeman who had access to the firearms branch," Mr Quigley said.
Explosive new claims in Shirley Finn murder mystery. Picture: Facebook.
The shadow attorney-general said he had not passed the claim on to police because the information came from police and there had never been an independent inquiry. He said he would be prepared to co-operate with the CCC.
Ms Shewring paid tribute to Brian yesterday for his courage in tendering a sworn affidavit to the CCC.
She said it felt like progress was being made in her campaign for justice. "But I have had my hopes up before and been let down," she said. "They (police) have had three reviews, apparently."
Ms Finn's Dodge sedan. Picture: File
The Premier said the cold-case review launched in February last year seemed to be producing new evidence.
"But I'm sure the CCC are watching it and if there is any conflict of interests, I would imagine they would become involved," he said.
Major crime Det. Supt Anthony Lee said police had not received any advice or referrals from the CCC regarding allegations by a former police officer.
A CCC spokeswoman said it had received information and was assessing it.
