AFP recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Four Australian Federal Police (AFP) members will today receive accolades in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. 

Detective Superintendent Gail McClure and Sergeant Gregory Corin will each receive an Australian Police Medal in recognition of their outstanding service to the AFP.  

Dr Sarah Benson, the AFP’s first female Chief Forensic Scientist, will receive a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service through driving innovation and forensic science capability for the AFP.

Superintendent Bec Goddard, who has been with the AFP for 20 years and works in Transnational Serious and Organised Crime, will receive a Medal of the Order of Australia (general division) in her personal capacity for her service to Australian Rules football and to women in sport.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw congratulated those recognised and thanked them for their decades of service to Australian policing and their communities.  

“Sarah, Gail, Bec and Greg are all dedicated and passionate about ensuring the safety of people in Australia and internationally,” Commissioner Kershaw said.

“They show leadership in their chosen fields both professionally and personally and I congratulate them on this honour,” Commissioner Kershaw said. 

Dr Benson leads the AFP Forensics Command and her role has included expanding the agency’s specialist forensic capabilities to prevent and disrupt serious crime and ensure community safety.

Her work overseas with the AFP includes deployments to countries in South East Asia to assist local authorities with scene and laboratory examinations and to The Netherlands and Ukraine as the Forensics-Disaster Victim Identification Commander after the downing of MH17 (2014).

From Australia, in 2019 she performed the role of Operations Manager for the Australian Law Enforcement support to New Zealand Police after the volcanic eruption on White Island.

Detective Superintendent McClure – who was the senior investigative officer for the AFP in South Australia on Operation Ironside – joined the AFP in 1999 and first served with National Operations, before being posted to the Western Command, Perth, and then to Eastern Command, Sydney. 

Detective Superintendent McClure has served the AFP, and the wider community, with distinction for more than 21 years. 

In 2003 she transferred to the AFP Melbourne office where she worked in Intelligence Operations, before being seconded to the National Crime Authority, and then to the Australian Crime Commission. She subsequently deployed to the United Nations Mission in Cyprus in 2007, and on her return to Australia, commenced with the Counter Terrorism portfolio. 

Following her promotion to the rank of Sergeant in 2009, she was assigned to the Office of the Commissioner, before transferring to the Counter Terrorism International team in 2013. She was then posted to the AFP’s London office as the AFP’s Counter Terrorism Liaison Officer. 

At the completion of her London posting, she was assigned to the Covert Services team in Melbourne where she built an Undercover Operative Exchange Program with international partners. 

Following her promotion to the rank of Superintendent in 2018, she took up a role leading Crime and Counter Terrorism investigations in Central Command, Adelaide. 

Sergeant Corin joined the AFP in 1987 and was posted to Sydney where he worked in a number of operational areas, including Close Personal Protection, before he transferred to ACT Policing. 

In his 34-year career, Sergeant Corin has been deployed overseas multipled times – in 1995 as part of the United Nation Forces in Cyprus, in 1999 to the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor, in 2011 to Afghanistan – where he provided training and mentoring to the Afghan National Police as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and in 2014 to the Ukraine, as part of the international response to the downing of flight MH17. 

Sergeant Corin has also worked in the Specialist Response Group and is a long-serving member of the Ceremonial and Protocol Officers Network.  

In addition to Superintendent Goddard’s significant AFP commitments, she is the current VFLW Head Coach at the Hawthorn Football Club.

A passionate advocate for diversity and equality in Australian sport, she has played, coached and umpired football and has the rare achievement of coaching success in two elite women’s sports – the AFLW and the Women’s National Basketball League.

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