Statement from Deputy Commissioner Scott Tilyard:

Tasmania Police has contacted internet service providers and requested the removal of the video containing graphic images taken following the Port Arthur shooting.

It is highly distressing not only for the families of the victims, but for the community, for these images to be available on the internet.

The video contains extracts of a video taken by Forensics personnel for evidentiary purposes.  The images were used in a training video in the late 1990s including for interstate and international policing jurisdictions, who had never before dealt with an incident of this scale and nature.

Tasmania Police will investigate the source of the video and its posting.   

Regrettably, this isn’t the first time that this training video has turned up in the wider community.   It has been posted on the internet previously and Tasmania Police acted to have it removed.

On that occasion, Tasmania Police contacted the majority of families of the victims and those who witnessed the shooting, to inform them that the video had been placed on the internet.  Counselling assistance was arranged, and a senior Tasmania Police officer also travelled to Western Australia and interviewed an individual who had some knowledge of the video’s posting.

Publicising the internet posting of the video serves only to draw attention to it and notoriety to those who posted it.  This increases the distress for families of victims.  Last night, The Mercury was requested not to publicise the existence of the images on the internet, for those reasons.  There is nothing positive to be gained by increased media exposure of this incident.

Family and friends of the victims, as well as emergency service personnel and others who have been affected by Port Arthur, shouldn’t have to re-live this trauma again.  Posting this vision on the internet causes them extra and unnecessary trauma. 

Police received information in 2004 that a person was selling copies of the video at a public market.  That person was spoken to and claimed to have found the video and a tip.  The matter was reported in the media at the time.  At the time that the video was made and used for training purposes in the late 1990s, You Tube and other social networking sites did not exist and it was not envisaged that these types of videos, if they did fall into the wrong hands, could be circulated so quickly and easily through more modern technologies, which were unheard of at that time.

Security arrangements in respect to storage and handling of these types of training materials also were not as stringent at that time as they are today.  Tasmania Police has since implemented special high-level storage and access arrangements in respect to all Port Arthur-related material.

Unfortunately, since unauthorised copies were made many years ago, it is all but impossible to ensure that these images are not posted on and circulated via internet-based technologies.

If you or someone you know is experiencing the symptoms of mental ill health please call the Mental Health Helpline on 1800 332 388 or Lifeline on 131114.

Tasmania Police Media & Communications
(03) 6230 2867