Former NSW Police sergeant alleges homophobia from fellow officers during service

From a very young age, Peter had always known he wanted to be a police officer.

"I had a police station in the backyard, in our cubby house, so my parents always knew I was going to be a police officer," he said.

Peter, who requested anonymity to protect his identity, joined the New South Wales Police Force in the late 1990s at 20 years old, but decided to keep his sexuality a secret.

"The derogatory comments towards homosexuals was constant … I thought from the very beginning the fact that I was gay was going to be an issue," he said.

Warning: This story contains homophobic language that may offend some readers.

He kept it under wraps for the first few years of his career until he was outed at a work function by another officer in the early 2000s.

By the next morning, it had spread throughout the station.

"I went to work the next day because I had to retrieve my firearm to go down to Goulburn academy for a course and a male constable had the keys to the safe and I asked for them and he spat in my face and said 'We don't want your kind here'," he said.

"There was an admin girl there who turned away like she didn't see it."

When Peter called his superior to report what happened, he was shocked by his response.

"The fact I was gay was more disgusting than being assaulted."

'For gay police … it was horrific'

Peter has recently left the NSW Police Force and spoke to ABC News because he wants to help change the toxic culture that he claims forced him out of the job the loved.

He wanted to add his voice to the dozens of other current and former officers who have spoken to the ABC with allegations of bullying, discrimination, nepotism and a dangerous lack of support for their mental health.

It has already prompted NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb to announce a formal review of the culture on the force, led by former Victorian equal opportunity human rights commissioner Kristen Hilton.

In the decade after Peter was outed at work, while the NSW Police continued to march in the annual Mardi Gras parade in public support of the LGBTQI+ community, he claims he was subjected to constant bullying because of his sexuality.

"People used to wipe down the desk or the keyboard if I'd been using it because I had germs … I had a nickname that lasted for a decade and it was to do with anal sex," he said.

"For gay police … it was horrific … it was really hard."

Through tears, Peter spoke about the hateful rumours he endured in about 2010.

"I was approached once by a senior constable and he said he was sorry that I was sick and I was like 'what are you talking about?'" he said.

"He said 'I heard you have AIDS' … I was like 'no, I don't have AIDS'.

"At the time I was a little overweight, so I'd lost some weight, and that's what they presumed, that I had AIDS."

'A lot of undertone'

Despite the constant bullying and discrimination, Peter never made any formal complaints throughout his career working in metropolitan NSW stations, because he believed it would only make things worse for him.

Instead, he stuck it out on the force, slowly climbing the ranks.

"The quicker I went up in rank, the quicker people couldn't say things to my face; you weren't going to say things like that to a sergeant," he said.

"The community changed, not the police, but the community changed and there was a lot more legislation that made it illegal to say things like they were saying.

In more recent years, Peter said the bullying and discrimination continued and officers continued openly using hateful and derogatory language to describe members of the LGBTQ+ community.

During NAIDOC week in 2018, he wanted to put the Aboriginal flag up in his station.

"As I pulled it out of the drawer I noticed that someone had drawn in black texta a penis in the middle of the yellow sun of the Aboriginal flag," he said.

"Someone had come into my office, taken out the Aboriginal flag, knowing it was going to be put up and knowing the flag was important to me and other police in the command."

Just last year, during WorldPride celebrations in Sydney, Peter said he overheard senior officers making "extremely homophobic" remarks about members of the LGBTQ+ community.

"Whilst I was standing with members of the Mardi Gras and other members of the trans community [I] overheard high up police saying derogatory homophobic comments," he said.

He said he is confident those he was with also heard the remarks.

Lack of support for police, even less for gay police

Over the past decade, Peter had slowly developed severe PTSD and said he repeatedly requested promotions or transfers that would allow him a break from general duties policing.

But despite his lengthy experience and being awarded for his work, including a commissioner's certificate of merit, he said he was never given the opportunity.

He believes he was held back because of his sexuality.

"There's not a lot of support for a lot of police, but there's definitely not a lot of support for gay police, there's nowhere to turn," he said.

"One particular boss, I was told later, apparently said that he didn't want fa***ts working upstairs.

Peter said the same boss who did not want him promoted called him into his office during 2020 and asked him to "research all the gay beats" in the area so they could "target them for antisocial behaviour".

That senior officer has since retired.

After more than two decades, Peter left the force earlier this year.

He now wants to tell his story to help inform the internal NSW Police review being conducted in the hope it will change things for future generations of police.

"I have hope that it'll change things, but it depends on how the review is conducted," he said.

"It needs to have ex-police and serving police to make comment and there needs to be real change."

Commissioner Webb has not yet committed to interviewing current and former officers as part of the review, but has previously told ABC News she would take advice from Ms Hilton about what is needed.