Threats, Torment And Fear
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday July 15, 2008
A NEWCASTLE-based ambulance officer has told a parliamentary inquiry of 11 months of threats and bullying by his former Cowra station staff.
Christopher Pollard, who now works at Hamilton ambulance station, said Cowra was "the darkest time of my life" and how he was reduced to tears. "They tormented me. I'm six-foot-three and 100 kilograms and . . . I was reduced to tears many times." When Mr Pollard walked into his office at Cowra ambulance station he was met with a disturbing sight, a toy monkey hanging by its neck. It was dressed in his station officer epaulets. Before the parliamentary inquiry into the management and operations of NSW's ambulance service is Mr Pollard's email: "This monkey had a rope around its neck. This action to me was a warning. The sector management did nothing but take it down. This is on a station where a girl hung (sic) herself."Mr Pollard, concerned for his safety, went on stress leave in December 2006 and never returned. The NSW Ambulance Service did nothing, despite his trauma occurring 20 months after another Cowra officer, Christine Hodder, hanged herself allegedly after years of bullying for being the station's first female officer.The message to Mr Pollard, the then-station manager, reflected the unofficial motto at the station: FIFO, fit in or f--- off. It followed 11 months of a hard core among his staff allegedly abusing and humiliating him.Internal ambulance documents from 2006 paint a disturbing picture of a lawless "boys' club", where firearms were kept on the premises and some officers abused the boss. It also emerged yesterday that another officer went on stress leave in August 2006 and has since been hospitalised with post-traumatic stress disorder. More than 100 submissions from across NSW have been sent to the inquiry. It has confirmed receiving the 2006 Cowra documents but has not made them public. They include an internal email, dated May 9, which said an officer in the so-called boys' club had recently stapled his scrotum to a hotel pool table. The Sydney Morning Herald has contacted several past and present Cowra officers, including station manager Mathew Kitchingman, about the allegations. Mr Kitchingman has not returned calls. Two officers said the bullying allegations were untrue. In one submission, understood to relate to Cowra, an officer claimed to have evidence of "firearms on station . . . bullying, . . . psychological problems and a documented death threat. This committee has the chance to save officers' lives. Please listen." SMH Lifeline 13 11 14
© 2008 Newcastle Herald