Qld: Hollis and Beattie urged to come clean over Brinks affair

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Qld: Hollis and Beattie urged to come clean over Brinks affair

By Alex Murdoch

BRISBANE, April 22 AAP - Queensland opposition leader Mike Horan today urged parliamentaryspeaker Ray Hollis and Premier Peter Beattie to come clean over allegations Mr Hollishelped two criminals evade police.

He called for the results of a promised Beattie inquiry into the affair to be made public.

Mr Hollis and his staff allegedly helped two men, now charged over the murder of Brinksarmoured van driver Matthew Kelly, escape police by running a red light in the speaker'sgovernment car.

The incident allegedly occurred just three days before the supposed murder of Mr Kellyon September 7, 2000.

Although Mr Kelly's body has never been found, Ian Guthrie, 31, was charged last weekin NSW with Kelly's murder, while his brother Patrick, 30, has been charged as an accessary.

The Guthrie brothers and Kelly were suspects in an armoured car robbery in SunnybankHills in Brisbane in 1999, where $2.7 million in cash was nabbed.

The Brisbane Sunday Mail reported police blamed Mr Hollis's office for interferingin a police surveillance operation, after officers received reports a murder was beingplanned.

The report said Mr Hollis' staff had become involved when the Guthrie brothers madecomplaints to his office of police harassment.

Mr Horan said he could not understand how Mr Hollis, even inadvertently, could haveallowed his car to be used to evade police and transport criminals.

"I'll be calling on both the Premier and the speaker to make statements to Queenslandparliament in the next sitting to provide us with that information," he said.

"I think Queenslanders deserve to know why was permission given for the use of a carin this way and in what way did it interfere with any police investigations."

Mr Horan said the story facts did not ring true and the public deserved an explanation.

"It seems to me to be a very strange usage of the car, it would require the permissionof the speaker - it's the speaker's vehicle - and the question of accountability has tobe answered."

Mr Beattie said yesterday that while he did not know all the details of the case, hebelieved Mr Hollis would never knowingly assist alleged criminals to escape.

AAP am/jfs/ldj/sb

KEYWORD: BRINKS HORAN