Lawyer X saga fizzles out with no police officers charged

No Victoria Police officer will be charged over the unlawful decision to use lawyer Nicola Gobbo as a secret informant against her own clients, ending one of the state’s most controversial legal chapters after more than $120 million was spent on years of investigations.

Two decades after the Purana Taskforce was formed to stop Melbourne’s murderous underworld war, the office of the special investigator – set up in 2021 to build criminal cases against the Victoria Police officers who used Gobbo as an informant – will be disbanded with no charges laid.

Former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle, now the special investigator, and Nicola Gobbo.

Cabinet met on Monday night to decide the agency’s future, just days after former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle called for his office to be disbanded – or else he would resign – owing to Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd’s decision not to prosecute criminal cases against police officers.

The Lawyer X scandal, as it is known, involved Gobbo, a former gangland barrister, being used as a police informant – which ultimately led to the quashing of three criminal convictions.

Former Supreme Court judge Stephen Charles labelled Tuesday’s developments “very disappointing, particularly for those who wanted to see justice carried out”.

“It raises the question of whether we are going to have a repeat of the whole Gobbo saga,” he said, adding that deterrence was a key pillar of the legal system.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes announced the decision to shut down the investigation in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

“Both the special investigator and Royal Commission Implementation Monitor, Sir David Carruthers, have recommended the winding up of the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) – and we have accepted their advice,” she said.

“I would like to thank Geoffrey Nettle for his work and wish him well for the future. Prosecutorial decisions are a matter for the DPP and it is critical that the Office of Public Prosecutions operates independently of government and statutory bodies like the OSI.”

A royal commission and the corruption watchdog did not recommend charges and the DPP refused to prosecute, leaving no obvious path for charges to be laid against police officers over the matter.

Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said the decision “protects rotten lawyers and corrupt cops” at the expense of the integrity of the justice system.

“By turning its back on former High Court justice Geoffrey Nettle and closing down the OSI, Labor is giving a free pass to all of those who engaged in what our highest court condemned as ‘reprehensible conduct’,” O’Brien said.

“The worst legal scandal in Victorian history will end with a whimper because a weak Labor government does not want to give the OSI the power to authorise charges.”

In his report tabled in parliament last Wednesday, Nettle said it appeared to be a “waste of time and resources” pursuing the Lawyer X matter any further.

The former judge was appointed to the OSI in December 2021 following Victoria’s royal commission into police informants. “Since it now appears to me that the director will not grant OSI permission to file any charge of relevant offence, I consider it to be pointless for OSI to continue,” Nettle wrote in his report.

That document, as well as correspondence between the OSI, the DPP and Symes, make it clear the former judge believed he had sufficient evidence to bring three separate prosecutions against Gobbo and police. The relevant charges would have included perjury, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office.

Gobbo was prepared to plead guilty and provide evidence against police officers, according to Nettle.

In response, Judd said the evidence compiled by Nettle did not have a reasonable prospect of conviction.

The DPP was concerned about the passage of time since the alleged offences, the credibility of witnesses and police relying on a “good faith” defence given they were trying to stop waves of gangland violence.

Senior members of Victoria’s legal community last week expressed their disappointment that the DPP would not bring charges against those involved in the Lawyer X scandal.

The saga has set taxpayers back millions of dollars thanks to the royal commission and the establishment of the OSI.

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