Cold case murders of gay men and LGBTQI community members will be investigated in a landmark NSW inquiry.

The special commission of inquiry into hate crimes led by Justice John Sackar was established in April after it was recommended by a 2019 parliamentary inquiry.

Sydney’s wave of anti-gay hate crime peaked during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, with an estimated 88 gay men killed between 1976 and 2000.

ACON, Australia’s largest sexuality community health organisation, said the brutal killings included everything from stabbings and strangulation to bludgeoning and shootings.

For the last five months a team of independent barristers, solicitors and investigators has been combing through more than 100,000 documents drawn from 40 years of police and coronial files as well as other sources on LGBTQI hate-related deaths.

In 2018, NSW Police acknowledged “without qualification both its and society’s acceptance of gay bashings and shocking violence directed towards gay men, and the LGBTIQ community” with release of the landmark Strike Force Parrabell report.

Senior Counsel Assisting Peter Gray will outline the scope of the inquiry in its first sitting on Wednesday.

The special commission, which has investigative powers, is due to deliver its report to the NSW governor in June 2023.

– AAP