Former police officer tells court he was ‘persecuted for exposing police corruption’

A former police officer standing trial told the Supreme Court on Thursday he was being persecuted by the Royal Gibraltar Police for exposing alleged corruption within the force.

Former RGP officer Anthony Bolaños, 38, faces two charges of unlawfully retaining personal data and unlawfully disclosing personal data, namely a wanted notice.

The defendant had faced a further charge of unlawfully retaining personal data, a custody record, but this was dropped on Thursday morning during the trial.

Mr Bolaños denies all the charges.

Mr Bolaños, who had served a decade in policing, took to the witness stand on Thursday morning to give his evidence.

He told the court he was “persecuted” by the police after a hidden pin-hole camera was found in a room in the custody suite in New Mole House Police Station in 2015.

Mr Bolaños told the court he was one of the officers who found the camera in a room where lawyers could speak to clients under legal privilege.

He said he reported the matter to senior managers at the RGP and was told to “stand down and forget this.”

“Nothing was done and I started being persecuted by the organisation,” Mr Bolaños said.

Mr Bolaños told the court he had picture and video evidence of the pin-hole camera on his mobile phone and described how, at a later point, the device itself could not be found.

Mr Bolaños said he later approached the Government regarding this issue and, in May 2022, provided a whistleblower statement to the McGrail Inquiry.

“I decided to face the demon and go against this corruption,” he said, adding that the people of Gibraltar should be able to rely on a “fair court system and judicial process”.

The court heard that a search of his home was conducted by the RGP in 2023 and Mr Bolaños was arrested and his mobile phone seized.

His evidence was that he had hidden his mobile device as he had no other copies of the images and videos of the pin-hole camera.

When searching his device, police officers found sensitive police data, namely the custody record and wanted notice that led to this trial.

The evidence before the court is that Mr Bolaños had received the custody record and wanted notice, which related to issues arising from the McGrail Inquiry, from a then serving police officer.

Some two and a half hours after receiving the images, Mr Bolaños sent a copy of the wanted notice to his lawyer, James Levy, KC, the senior partner of Hassans law firm, the court was told.

At the time, Mr Bolaños had set all his mobile messaging services to self-delete and told the court he did not solicit the images from the RGP officer.

He submitted that he sent the wanted notice to his lawyer through the Signal messaging service because he felt he needed safeguard his position.

“I am no criminal… I needed to send it to someone to protect me,” Mr Bolaños said.

He told the court he felt it was his legal right to send the document to his lawyer.

Director of Public Prosecutions Christian Rocca, KC, asked Mr Bolaños whether he knew the data should not have been shared, to which he agreed he was aware.

“I saw the wanted notice and it played on my mind. How can I legally have a defence? I cannot call the police. I thought, I’ll send it to a lawyer,” Mr Bolaños said.

Mr Rocca put it to the defendant that he had received a phone call from Mr Levy before the wanted notice was sent.

Mr Bolaños said that conversation “contains legal privilege” and declined to share any further information.

He said he had been subjected to two search warrants, had 12 offences “floating around”, and his reputation had been tainted.

“I sent it in the survival state I was in,” Mr Bolaños said.

CLOSING

The prosecution and defence case closed on Thursday, with lawyers from both sides then delivering their closing submissions.

In his closing submissions, Mr Rocca told the court that whether the defendant had retained and sent personal data was not in dispute.

He said Mr Bolaños had received and intentionally shared the data, and that the defendant had all his messaging services on auto-delete.

Mr Rocca told jurors that Mr Bolaños had no right to retain or share sensitive police data.

He said Mr Bolaños would have been better protected by writing to the officer who sent him the material in the first place and questioning why he had done so, rather than sharing it with Mr Levy.

Mr Bolaños’ lawyer, Shane Danino, said his client felt he had been “unfairly targeted” and persecuted by the police.

Echoing a line of questioning that had already triggered tense exchanges earlier in the trial, Mr Danino again claimed that the former Commissioner of Police, Richard Ullger, had breached data protection laws himself in his role as Data Controller at the RGP, something Mr Ullger strongly denied in evidence to the court.

Puisne Judge Matthew Happold intervened, reminding Mr Danino that he was giving evidence to the jury rather than summing up his case.

Mr Danino questioned too why, if retaining personal police data was an offence, Mr Levy had not been charged after receiving the image of the wanted notice.

He added that there was no evidence against Mr Bolaños suggesting he had solicited the images from the serving police officer.

Before sending the jury home on Thursday afternoon, Mr Justice Happold told jurors it had been an “eventful day,” reminding them with an “abundance of caution” not to search for any further information relating to this case.

The trial is set to continue today.

Mr Justice Happold is expected to sum up and deliver jury directions this morning, with jurors then set to deliberate their verdict.

Mr Rocca was assisted by Christina Wright.