A judge has thrown out the sacking of a former police detective for having photos of a human corpse on his phone.
Murray Gentner appealed his dismissal to Victoria's Supreme Court and Justice Michael McDonald on Wednesday quashed a decision by the Police Registration and Services board to sack him.
The judge found his dismissal from Victoria Police was "unjust" and ordered the matter be re-heard by a differently constituted board.
Mr Gentner was identified in 2020 as being involved in leaking photos and engaging in derogatory commentary about former AFL coach Dani Laidley while she was in police custody.
Charges were laid against him over this, but then dismissed by a magistrate in March 2022.
Mr Gentner was then charged in January 2023 for engaging in disgraceful or improper conduct after the discovery of a series of group texts with other police officers between May 2016 and September 2019.
The messages included images of sex toys, offenders, dead people, classified police information and comments that were derogatory, sexist, homophobic, discriminatory and prejudiced.
Shaun Le Grand was appointed as the disciplinary inquiry officer (DIO) to the police disciplinary inquiry investigating Mr Gentner's conduct in May 2023.
Mr Le Grand was informed of six additional images of dead bodies on Mr Gentner's phone, but the disciplinary officer determined the additional material was largely irrelevant.
But Mr Gentner's lawyer said reliance on the additional material would be procedurally unfair because it was outside the scope of the charge.
He asked Mr Le Grand to recuse himself, but the officer dismissed this.
Mr Le Grand in June 2023 notified Mr Gentner's lawyers of his intention to amend the dates of the original charge and the next month determined the amended charge was proven and found Mr Gentner should be dismissed from Victoria Police.
Mr Gentner applied for the Police Registration and Services Board to review these findings.
The board affirmed the officer's finding and Mr Gentner appealed this to the Supreme Court.
Justice McDonald found the board's decision to affirm the disciplinary inquiry officer's finding was an "error of law" because he did not have the power to amend the original charge.
"The DIO's failure to comply with a substantive statutory precondition to the exercise of the power of dismissal has the consequence that the dismissal was unjust," he said on Wednesday.
"This in turn has the consequence that the board’s decision affirming the dismissal decision was erroneous."
In addition to overturning Mr Gentner's dismissal, Justice McDonald ordered a review of Mr Le Grand's decision by a differently constituted board.
Victoria Police has been contacted for comment.
