Fed: Police investigate release of Port Arthur massacre video

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2004
Fed: Police investigate release of Port Arthur massacre video

HOBART, Aug 28 AAP - Police are investigating how a highly sensitive police video,
showing gruesome crime scene footage of victims of the Port Arthur massacre, fell into
public hands.

The Weekend Australian reports that the 22-minute film, marked as a Tasmanian Police
Training Video and intended for use only by police, was sold at a Hobart tip shop for
10 cents.

A Tasmanian woman told the paper the video was one of several she bought from a refuse
recycling shop in March.

The paper says the Tasmanian government had known about the inadvertent release of
the video since May but had not warned Port Arthur survivors or the victims' families
that it was in circulation.

The video includes footage of victims' bodies in and around the Port Arthur site.

Tasmania's Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Johnson said a full investigation into the
incident was under way.

Gunman Martin Bryant was jailed for life without parole for murdering 35 people on
April 28, 1996.

AAP ka/rs

KEYWORD: MASSACRE VIDEO

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