POLICE ROUNDS:

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) says the arrests yesterday afternoon of Australian entertainment icons Paul Hogan and Bryan Brown are the result of an “over-eager” senior officer acting on their own initiative and responding to misinformation.

AFP Commissioner, Reece Kershaw, said he had ordered the release of Mr Hogan and Mr Brown as soon as he was informed of the reasons for the raids and their arrest.

Heavily armed squads of AFP officers descended on the Sydney homes of Mr Brown and Mr Hogan and took both men into custody. (main picture).

“The officers who apprehended both Mr Hogan and Mr Brown were acting on the orders of a senior AFP commander who had the best interests of the Australian community at heart,” Commissioner Kershaw said. “But unfortunately this particular commander got it wrong this time.”

Commissioner Kershaw refused to name the senior commander despite repeated questioning by reporters.

“All I am going to say is that it appears the senior commander who ordered the raids had been listening to ABC Radio yesterday morning.

“He heard an interview with Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, about the company’s massive customer data breach.

“Unfortunately she told the interviewer: ‘We know this is the work of some bad actors and really, they are the villains in this story.’

“It all just rolled on from there and started to take on a life of its own. The first I heard about it was in a phone call advising me of the raids and the arrests of Mr Hogan and Mr Brown.”

Commissioner Kershaw said he hoped the two men would accept his apologies.

He also confirmed that before being called off, raids had been on the brink of being launched yesterday on the homes of all cast members of Network Seven’s soap opera Home and Away as well as the homes of all of the cast of the now-axed Ten Network program Neighbours.