Former DPP solicitor Lisa Munro escapes conviction after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine

LISA Munro was on top of her game as a member of the elite Group Six prosecution team until her habit forced her boss to dob her in.

Lisa Munro (Blonde hair). Former ODPP solicitor who has been charged with possessing cocaine

NEW SOUTH WALES’ top prosecutor has spoken for the first time about why he dobbed in a member of his legal dream team to the police for using cocaine.

A former rising star in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lisa Munro, 33, yesterday escaped conviction and was sentenced to a 12-month good-behaviour bond for possessing cocaine.

Munro, from Lane Cove, pleaded guilty in August to one charge of possessing a prohibited drug after she was caught with 0.5 grams of cocaine between 8.55pm and 9.05pm on July 10 by police in Kings Cross.

She had been the target of a police operation when she pulled up in a taxi in Macleay St and briefly spoke to a man before getting back into the cab. Officers stopped the taxi and searched Munro when they found her carrying the drug.

“It would have been unacceptable to have received allegations of drug use, that is, unlawful behaviour, about a staff member and not to have informed the police,” Munro’s former boss and Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC said.

At her sentencing hearing yesterday, Downing Centre Local Court was told that, after being arrested, Munro resigned from her position with the ODPP’s elite team of lawyers known as Group Six that deals with high-profile cases and referrals from the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Group Six also dealt for a while with the prosecution of Lindt cafe siege gunman Man Monis for charges relating to his wife’s murder and a string of sexual assaults.

“The office prosecutes crime. It is made up of lawyers and barristers who specialise in criminal law,” Mr Babb said last week in reply to questions posed by The Daily Telegraph before Munro was sentenced.

“The allegations had to be investigated and NSW Police were the appropriate body to do that.

“It should be noted that, although the allegations were not substantiated by any evidence uncovered in the ODPP offices, the staff member was arrested three weeks later in an unrelated drug operation, has resigned and pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine.”

Munro came to the attention of authorities after the ODPP asked police to investigate a suspected drug culture among its star team of lawyers.

Her lawyer Matthew Johnston SC said it had been her dream job.

“Through these actions she has destroyed her own dream,” he said.

Magistrate Greg Grogin told Munro he had considered the matter at great length and said she was not to be punished “because she was a solicitor caught with drugs” but as a “member of the community”.

Former rising legal star ... Lisa Munro