Ken Buckley was probably the only person involved in the Bogle-Chandler case who went on to achieve greater prominence in other areas. An associate professor of economic history by the time he retired from Sydney University, he was also a leading campaigner for civil rights in New South Wales, and was the author and co-author of several books.

Kenneth Donald Buckley was born in Hackney, East London, in 1922. He was schooled in Kent and then Queen Mary College, University of London, where he studied economics. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War, in which he worked for British Intelligence in both the Middle East and Greece.

After the war he resumed his studies and achieved a first class honours degree. He also joined the Communist party. He obtained a lecturing position at Aberdeen University before accepting a position at Sydney University in 1953 -- a position which, unknown to him, Australian intelligence authorities tried to block.

Buckley quit the Communist party in the 1950s, after Krushchev revealled the truth about Stalin's Russia and the local party in Australia tried to suppress the revelations and prevent members from discussing them. He nevertheless remained a lifelong left-leaning activist.

In 1963, in an event unrelated to the Bogle-Chandler case, he was at a King's Cross party when it was raided by Vice Squad officers. He found the behaviour of the officers objectionable, but when he tried to complain about this he found that the officers had given false names. Buckley was eventually able to identify one as Detective Sergeant Giles, head of the local Vice Squad.

Buckley's complaints to the police commissioner had no result and he later said "...there was a spate of incidents at the time, indicating that NSW police were out of control" ²¹. With several other people, he formed the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, and became its first secretary.

The Council for Civil Liberties campaigned against the police practise of "verballing", in which police fabricate confessions from suspects. The Council also actively opposed censorship, fighting the bans in NSW on the book Lady Chatterley's Lover and the stage show Oh! Calcutta.

In 1976 Buckley became president of the new national council, remaining for a long time after a keen supporter of civil liberties. He campaigned against extended powers for police and ASIO and against the imprionment without trial, for extended periods of time, of asylum seekers. He also opposed the publication of the names and addresses of sex offenders.

He also supported the legalisation of brothels and government controlled shooting galleries, and favoured the decriminalisation of cannabis. He remained unsure about heroin.

Buckley's slight involvement with the Bogle-Chandler case came about almost by chance. At the time he was a senior lecturer in economic history at Sydney University. He was also a member of the "Push", a loose association of libertarians, beatniks and other people with left-leaning political views. Buckley would say later that Push members were talkers and not doers.

Socially aquainted with Geoffrey Chandler, both Buckley and Chandler were drinkers at the Royal George Hotel, a Push hangout. Buckley had arranged for a large New Year's Eve party at his home in Balmain. Some time in the week before the party, he had seen Geoffrey Chandler and Chandler's then girlfriend, Pamela Logan, at the hotel. Both were invited to the party.

In the investigation following the discovery of the bodies of Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler, Geoffrey Chandler's movements on the night of the party came under intense scrutiny. Ken Buckley's party became famous as the party that Geoffrey Chandler had left his wife to attend; the timings of Chandler's arrival and departure from the party became important, as did the evidence of the eyewitnesses who'd seen him there.

On the evening of the party itself, Buckley later told the inquest that he'd first seen Chandler just before midnight, in the company of Pam Logan and a Miss Fullager. Geoffrey Chandler's evidence slightly contradicted this, in that he said he'd arrived after midnight. However, Buckley had paid no particular attention to the details of Chandler's movements, as he was perfectly willing to admit when asked about Chandler's departure:

Sergeant Goode: When did you miss him?

Ken Buckley: I didn't miss him.

Buckley explained he'd first known that Chandler had left at 6am, when the party ended. However the same was true of many guests and was not unusual. Mr Murray, Geoffrey Chandler's lawyer, then asked if it had been a good party. Buckley replied: "It was a beauty."