Commissioner Margaret McMurdo shuts out public during Lawyer X Royal Commission
Members of the public, media and a group of legal representatives were asked to leave the hearing room at the Lawyer X Royal Commission, while evidence was presented about another lawyer who may have been a police informant.
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The police have had the public shut out of the Lawyer X Royal Commission from hearing evidence about another lawyer who may have provided information to police.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo ruled it was necessary to suppress evidence relating to the man — who must be referred to as Mr McCallum.
She ruled only Victoria Police’s lawyers, the government and counsel assisting the inquiry can be present when evidence regarding Mr McCallum is heard.
A legal representative for the media can also be in the hearing room but they would be legally bound not to reveal the proceedings.
The Lawyer X Royal Commission was established to examine the conduct of gangland barrister turned police informer Nicola Gobbo.
But part of the inquiry’s terms of reference was to uncover if police had other human source’s with legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege.
Representatives of men convicted over the “tomato tins” ecstasy smuggling plot were also barred from hearing legal arguments about “Mr McCallum”.
Lawyers for tomato tin ringleaders Pasquale Barbaro and Frank Madafferi, Salvatore Agresta, Giovanni Polimeni and Black Uhlans bikie gang founder John Higgs also applied to cross-examine two witnesses who could give evidence about Mr McCallum.
Some of those convicted of the 4.4 tonne ecstasy haul have been closely watching the Royal Commission to determine if they could challenge their sentences due to Gobbo’s informing.
The Royal Commission has already heard that Gobbo gave the Bill of Lading, which revealed the location of the container the 15 million ecstasy pills were stashed in, to her police handlers.
She then went on to represent Pasquale Barbaro and Rob Karam after their arrests.
In total 32 people were convicted to more than 300 years in prison for the drug bust.
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The High Court in a 2018 judgment found Victoria Police engaged in “reprehensible” conduct by “knowingly encouraging” Ms Gobbo to provide information against the interests of her clients.
It ended a more than five year battle Victoria Police had waged with the Herald Sun to stop the paper from revealing Gobbo was an informer.
The Andrews Government established the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants after the High Court’s scathing judgment.
Ms McMurdo has previously rejected a police application that would have seen the inquiry go on in secret for months.