In short:
Will Smith, a former police officer turned youth worker, has spoken about the late Paul Reynolds, a senior Tasmania Police officer who took his own life in 2018 before investigations into his abuse of children were finalised.
After Reynolds died by suicide, Mr Smith said he did not attend the funeral — which led to him being abused by some colleagues.
What’s next?
An inquiry, led by a former war crimes prosector, has handed down a number of recommendations in the wake of the Reynolds scandal — and while the government says it will work with Tasmania Police, there has been no guarantee all of the recommendations would all be implemented.
Will Smith was 15, playing junior football in Tasmania’s north, when he first met police officer Paul Reynolds.
Like many others he was struck by the police officer’s charisma and charm, and Reynolds quickly became part of his life.
WARNING: This story contains details of sexual abuse which may cause distress.
And when Mr Smith became a police officer, Reynolds was his supervisor and mentor.
Although Reynolds’s often inappropriate behaviour seemed strange, Mr Smith didn’t think too much of it.
That was until he started to rise up the ranks in Tasmania Police, when people occasionally suggested Reynolds was someone who liked to spend time with young men.
In 2018, Mr Smith heard from a member of the Deloraine community about allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
“When I spoke to the young people, they passed on information about communications that they’d had with Reynolds, which included sharing explicit images of themselves, but then also receiving explicit images from Reynolds as well.”
Armed with that information, Mr Smith made the difficult decision that he needed to make a complaint against Reynolds.
“Paul was not only a well respected member of the community, he was a well respected member of the football community that I participated in, he openly admitted that he had a very strong friendship with the commissioner of police,” Mr Smith said.
“I was a young aspiring police officer at the time, he was well connected within the service … and in addition to that, he was someone who was a mentor to me.
“So, you know, it was a really, really difficult decision to … voice my concerns in relation to someone of that status.”
Mr Smith’s complaint was made internally through Tasmania Police’s “blue team” reporting mechanism, with a senior officer he trusted putting his name to it.
He heard from the other officer Reynolds was being investigated by police’s professional standards unit.
A while later he was told Reynolds had died by suicide, one day after his house was searched.
Incomplete investigation ‘the most frustrating part’
The investigation into Reynolds was discontinued when he died, with the majority of the community unaware of his offending until a coronial inquest was released in 2023.
A review by former war crimes prosecutor Regina Weiss released this week revealed the extent of his crimes, finding he’d groomed at least 52 boys over three decades.
Mr Smith said Tasmania Police’s decision to stop the investigation without explanation meant the young people who came forward with allegations about Reynolds did not receive proper support.
“I know that there are young people who had made allegations in 2018 in relation to Reynolds but never participated in the review, and I personally believe that’s because they were mistreated in the process of making those initial allegations,” he said.
“Their voices were never heard in the review. And that’s probably the most frustrating part for me.”
Colleague abuse after not attending funeral
A lack of community understanding about Reynolds’s offending also meant that when he was given a full police funeral, despite senior police officers being aware he was under investigation over sexual abuse allegations, hundreds of people lined Launceston’s Elizabeth Street to say farewell.
Mr Smith decided to stay at home.
“It was difficult for me because I had police officers that I’d also built a relationship with who had sent me messages condemning the fact that I didn’t attend, that I wasn’t supportive of someone who had mentored me through different processes,” he said.
“Two messages in particular had abusive content saying what a f***ing joke that I couldn’t rock up to a guy who had done so much to me throughout my life.
“And at the time, I didn’t think it was my place to discuss allegations that had been made. I didn’t think it was my place to discuss that publicly with anyone else. For me, I thought there was due process occurring.”
Mr Smith said he found it difficult to cope at times after making the report, claiming he was never told by Tasmania Police that the information he’d passed on had been found to be true.
“The fact that [Reynolds] took his own life carried a really big burden on me and a guilt for me as well, that potentially allegations that I had no substantive evidence of at the time, resulted in someone who was close to me taking their own life,” he said.
The youth organisation founder said the radio silence from police also meant he received criticism from community members who believed he’d done nothing with the information.
Report ‘a step in the right direction’
Mr Smith said the report and its five recommendations was “a really good step in the right direction”, particularly recommendations for an independent body to investigate allegations of misconduct against police officers, and for the police to build stronger relationships with sporting clubs.
Tasmania Police has accepted all the recommendations.
Two of them require government approval, with Labor and the Greens lobbying for a recommendation that the Integrity Commission be given greater powers when investigating police misconduct to be implemented urgently.
“Tasmanians have got to have faith in all our government agencies but right now they’re losing faith,” Labor Leader Dean Winter said.
“We need to make sure that we’ve got integrity bodies that have power and the teeth to get into the heart of these issues.”
Police Minister Felix Ellis said the government would work with Tasmania Police on the recommendations — but did not guarantee they’d be implemented.
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