Police face cover-up charges

Two serving New Zealand police officers, a former officer and a man believed to be currently serving in the Queensland police force face charges of conspiring to defeat the course of justice after allegedly lying about the way a man died.

The four appeared in Manukau District Court yesterday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Two of the four were granted interim name suppression.

Serving officer Clinton Hill, 29, is charged with assaulting George Tipene Harris, 24, on October 3, 2004, shortly before he ran into the path of a street sweeper and was killed. Benson Murphy understood to be a Queensland police force officer faces a conspiracy charge.

The charges follow a high-level police inquiry into an alleged cover-up over Mr Harris's death.

The inquiry led by Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess was prompted by new information claiming Mr Harris was assaulted in the back of a police car shortly before the accident.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority inquired into the death in 2004 but found no one at fault.

NZPA