Athol Moffitt

Athol Randolph Moffitt (1914-2007) was an eminent Australian jurist and was the author of several books. He is best known as the chair of the landmark 1973-74 Moffitt Royal Commission, which investigated organised crime in New South Wales.

Moffit was the son of NSW workers' compensation judge Herbert William Moffitt, and his older sister Gwen was also a practising solicitor. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School and then studied law at the University of Sydney, where he graduated with first-class honours. He was admitted to the NSW bar in 1938.

At the outset of World War II Moffitt joined the AIF as a private in the artillery, reaching the rank of captain. He was involved with the war crimes trials held at Labuan of the Japanese officers and soldiers who had taken part in the murders and brutality at the POW camp at Sandakan and the Sandakan death marches. As a result of these trials, eight Japanese, including Captain Hoshijima Susumi, the Sandakan camp commandant, were hanged, and 55 more were imprisoned. Moffitt published Project Kingfisher, a book about the Sandakan atrocities and a stalled rescue plan, in 1989.

Moffitt was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1956, and became a member of the bar council. In 1959 he acted as a NSW Supreme Court judge for six months. He was again appointed acting judge in 1962, relieving the ailing Justice Bill Dovey and became a permanent judge in November that year. In 1969 Moffitt went to the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

In 1973 he was appointed to head a royal commission investigating allegations of organised crime in licensed clubs in NSW. The royal commission uncovered apparent links between the American Mafia and local organised crime figures such as Sydney's "Mr Big", Lenny McPherson and the involvement of organised crime groups in the growing trade in illegal drugs especially heroin. It also investigated the activities (and alleged Mafia links) of the Bally poker machine company, the major supplier of gaming equipment to licensed clubs.

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