Queensland police Detective Inspector Glenn Horan allegedly used police database to track former partner
A high-ranking Queensland detective allegedly used a police database to search an address his then-partner visited, with a prosecutor saying it seemed "unlikely" he did so because he saw something suspicious.
Detective Inspector Glenn Horan is facing one charge of using a restricted computer without consent (domestic violence) and pleaded not guilty at the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
The prosecution alleges Inspector Horan suspected his then-partner, Senior Constable Celeste Batticciotto, was in a relationship with someone else.
Prosecutor Kim Bryson claimed Inspector Horan used the police database QPRIME in October 2021 to find out who lived at the address Senior Constable Batticciotto had been visiting.
The address was that of one of Queensland's top cops, now Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsley, who Senior Constable Batticciotto said was a friend.
Six days after the QPRIME search, the senior constable alleges she was at Mr Harsley's home around lunchtime when she saw Inspector Horan outside near the fence line.
She said she had been at Mr Harsley's home to discuss buying a house and home loans.
"I ran … I ducked and was absolutely terrified," she told the court on Monday.
Defence barrister KC Saul Holt rejected the allegations, and said his client told police he searched the address a week earlier as he had been exercising and saw something suspicious.
Ms Bryson on Tuesday said the events in question might be considered "too perfectly aligned to simply be remote".
"The defendant's concern was so serious that he conducted a search of the address yet took no further action," she said.
Senior Constable Batticciotto said when she returned to the house where she lived with Inspector Horan, he was red-faced and angry.
"He was fuming, he was slamming things down," she said.
The court heard when she told Inspector Horan she saw him at the house he said "I don't know what you're talking about".
Senior Constable Batticciotto told the court Inspector Horan believed he would be in trouble as there would be an automatic flag on the senior officer's address in QPRIME on account of his rank.
"He told me he would be in trouble and this was my fault," she said.
"He said the consequences for me would be bad."
Senior Constable Batticciotto said she was a constable of general duties and Inspector Horan was a detective senior sergeant when they met in Cairns in 2012.
The pair later moved to Brisbane and Senior Constable Batticciotto alleges by 2021 "things were not good" between them.
Senior Constable Batticciotto claimed there was domestic violence in the relationship, which Inspector Horan's representatives denied.
Mr Holt said there was no evidence produced that Inspector Horan was not somewhere else on the day Senior Constable Batticciotto claimed she saw him at Mr Harsley's house.
Mr Holt said it was not in dispute that Inspector Horan had conducted a check on the property a week earlier after seeing "suspicious activity near the stairs and a suspicious person coming from the house".
He argued Inspector Horan was an authorised user of QPRIME and was given a password and a username.
Mr Holt said there was no evidence that Inspector Horan knew of any link between Senior Constable Batticciotto and the search address.
He said Inspector Horan and Senior Constable Batticciotto's relationship "if not over, was close to being over".
Deputy Commissioner Harsley said on Monday he met Senior Constable Batticciotto through work, and she would visit him sometimes on Saturdays at his home.
The deputy commissioner told the court he and Senior Constable Batticciotto were sitting on the couch talking when she "reacted quite animatedly" and said that she'd seen Inspector Horan.
He said he looked through the back window and saw a man fitting the description of Inspector Horan about 9 or 10 metres away, but he didn't see the person's face.
He said he later rang Inspector Horan and asked if he'd been at his house that day.
"Glenn said he was on the northside of Brisbane," the deputy commissioner said.
The three-day hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday when a judgement is delivered.
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