Jye Symes: Ex-Victoria Police detective jailed for forging evidence against woman in drug trafficking case

A former Victorian detective has been jailed after he was caught forging evidence against a South Australian woman while leading a drug-trafficking investigation. Jye Symes, 37, stood with his hands gripped behind his back in the dock of the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday morning as he was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office. He showed little reaction as Judge Michael Cahill denounced his crime as a serious abuse of power, however his wife of a decade’s face went flush and her head dropped. “Corrupt police matters, such as yours was, has significant social consequences; it undermines public confidence,” Judge Cahill said. “The public is entitled to rely on the integrity of police officers...entitled to expect police officers will not abuse the trust placed in them.” Family and friends of the jailed man were present to support him, seen sharing a few smiles before the proceeding got underway. A senior Victoria Police officer could be seen seated in the back of the court. The court was told detectives from the Major Drug Squad raided a Cairnlea property suspected of being a drug safe house used for the preparation and shipping of drugs in the mail. Gloves found at the property were forensically linked by DNA to a man arrested at the scene who was charged with drug trafficking offences and pleaded guilty the following year. At one point Symes, then a Detective Senior Constable, was appointed as the informant to lead the investigation and was directed by his Sergeant to submit a woman’s DNA for comparison to the gloves and handwriting for comparison against a number of express post parcels found at the home. She was listed as a tenant at the property, the court was told, but was not present when police raided the home. Judge Cahill said Symes told his Sergeant her DNA had been sent off to the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department but failed to do so. Instead he doctored the original report by forensic scientist Rachel Feilso linking the man to the gloves to instead implicate the woman. He also manipulated an expert forensic handwriting analysis report by forensic scientist James Brandi from an earlier case to link her handwriting to the parcels. The woman, who had moved to South Australia, returned to Melbourne for a police interview in June 2022 where Symes charged her with drug trafficking — an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 25 years. She spent a day in custody before being released on bail and “had to ensure the considerable anxiety” of a wrongful prosecution for more than a year, Judge Cahill said. The court was told Symes’s deception began to unravel after the woman’s lawyers sought to cross-examine Ms Feilso and Mr Brandi on their reports. Both Ms Feilso and Mr Brandi identified the reports as falsified when contacted by solicitors from the Office of Public Prosecutions. In contact with prosecutors, Symes suggested they plead down to a lessor charge and claimed there was issues with the two reports. Charges against the woman were withdrawn in July 2023 — the same day Symes was raided by police and lost his job. The court was told Symes had been a police officer since 2009 with references from family describing him as dedicated to the career. Judge Cahill said what motivated Symes was unclear as there was no discernible personal gain, but accepted he was genuinely remorseful and unlikely to offend again. But the court was told the father-of-two had since been diagnosed with stress and trauma from the job and had recently sought medial help to address this. Symes is likely to spend his prison time in protective custody due to his status as a disgraced police officer. He will be eligible for parole after serving 18 months.