Royal commission ordered as criminals to be notified cases could be tainted in legal scandal
Getaway driver Faruk Orman is set to be the first person convicted of a gangland homicide to appeal over the Lawyer X scandal. It comes as former homicide cop Ron Iddles said he was concerned the scandal “was always going to come out”.
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Getaway driver Faruk Orman is set to be the first person convicted of a gangland homicide to appeal over the Lawyer X scandal.
Orman has been considering his position since 2014 when the scandal broke.
He is an associate of Mick Gatto, who questioned Lawyer X in April 2014 about her role as a double agent after the revelations.
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Orman was convicted for being the getaway driver for Andrew Benji Veniamin in the murder of Victor Peirce, in Bay St, Port Melbourne, in 2002.
Peirce had acted as a bodyguard to Frank Benvenuto.
A Supreme Court jury convicted Orman in 2009 of that murder and he remains in prison where he is serving a 14 year minimum sentence.
Lawyer X condensed voluminous documents into a smaller pile of evidence for Robert Richter QC on Orman’s behalf for trial.
Mr Richter raised concerns about some of the evidence in Orman’s trial, related to Orman’s past.
It is not known how heavily Lawyer X could have contributed to tainting his case.
IDDLES: I RAISED RED FLAG IN 2009
Up to 15 senior police knew a criminal barrister was being used as an informer, retired homicide cop Ron Iddles says.
Mr Iddles, one of Victoria’s most respected detectives and former Police Association boss, on Tuesday said he had warned senior colleagues against the use of Lawyer X to inform on her clients.
The Herald Sun revealed in July 2014 that Mr Iddles was sent to Bali in 2009 to take a statement from Lawyer X as part of the Operation Briars investigation into the murder of self-confessed vampire gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott, but did not let her to sign it due to his concerns.
“It was always going to come out, I think, and be a mess,” Mr Iddles told Neil Mitchell on Tuesday.
“I think as things progressed, and quite clearly from my conversations with 3838 (Lawyer X), the lines became blurred.
“There would have been maybe 10 to 15 very senior police who knew what was happening … They walked past the behaviour but still accepted it.”
He said in 2009 he told these senior police, including a superintendent: “You don’t get this. I can tell you now, this will cause a royal commission.”
Mr Iddles also said Lawyer X’s handlers had flagged concerns over the scheme with their seniors, but were ordered to keep going.
In Seminyak in 2009, Mr Iddles said he only learned the lawyer he was taking a witness statement from was also a police informer when he opened up intelligence reports there to jog her memory.
She appeared to have a “fascination with police”, he said.
“I’ve been working with Victoria Police for a long time. I crossed the line a long time ago,” she told him.
Mr Iddles took Lawyer X’s statement, but refused to let her sign it, fearing for her safety and a potential royal commission.
Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Simon Overland, personally supervised Lawyer X’s use as an informer after setting up the Purana gangland taskforce in 2003 — as assistant commissioner of crime — in a bid to end the mounting toll of underworld murders.
Mr Overland is expected to face intense scrutiny in the royal commission into the Lawyer X scandal.
Now Whittlesea Council chief, on Tuesday night he refused to comment on this week’s developments.
Arriving at his Richmond home at about 9pm, Mr Overland drove in to his property and swiftly shut his gate before exiting his car and greeting two barking dogs.
ASHTON KNEW OF INFORMER
The Herald Sun has learned that after police chief commissioner Graham Ashton became aware of the full extent of Lawyer X’s informing, including on her clients — when he took over as assistant commissioner of crime in 2011 — he requested a detective superintendent commence a review.
After receiving that report, Mr Ashton alerted then chief commissioner Ken Lay, who in turn engaged former police chief Neil Comrie to independently probe the issue.
Mr Comrie’s investigation led to the disbanding of the Human Source Development Unit in 2013.
EDITORIAL: SHINING A LIGHT ON GANG WAR SECRETS
It led to a restructure of its “human source” management.
The Herald Sun can also reveal it was Mr Ashton who made the decision to remove Lawyer X as a witness against Paul Dale over charges relating to lying to the Australian Crime Commission during a 2013 trial.
Lawyer X was withdrawn after threats to her life.
Mr Ashton flew to Canberra to meet with the Commonwealth Office of Public Prosecution to explain why their key witness had to be withdrawn.
It led to 12 of 23 charges being dropped against Mr Dale.
Coincidentally, Lawyer X had received a payout of $2.88 million after she sued the force for ruining her career.
‘THIS ISN’T NAZI GERMANY’
Peter Faris QC, former chairman of the National Crime Authority, represented drug lord Tony Mokbel after the supergrass lawyer did, and weighed in on ABC radio this morning.
“If anyone had’ve told me she was a registered police informer, I would’ve said they were crazy, unbelievable for that to be the case,” he said.
“It’s absolutely unprecedented as far as I can see that a busy practising criminal lawyer is at the same time a registered police informer.”
Mr Faris said despite the gangland-era being a bloody time in Melbourne’s history, “the ends do not justify the means”.
“This isn’t Nazi Germany where the police can walk in, take someone off the street and shoot them,” he said.
“People, no mater how good or how bad they are entitled to due process of the law and part of that due process is they can have the confidence in their lawyer anything they say will be confidential.”
Mr Faris said it’s impossible to predict whether Mokbel and other serious criminals will be released.
At the same time, the lawyer concerned is in danger.
“Police have assessed it as being almost certain that she will be killed unless she goes into witness protection, which she has refused to do,” he said.
Mr Faris said Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton should step aside.
“Absolutely. He was involved in this and he’s got to stand down,” he said.
Mr Ashton said he was certain all officers linked to the informant acted in “good faith”.
‘VICTORIA NEEDS BODY TO PROBE POLICE CONDUCT’
Jeremy King, a principal lawyer at Robinson Gill Lawyers, said this was an important chapter, but one of many in Victoria Police’s history.
“The only way it is going to be stopped is if we have a strong independent body to investigate police misconduct,’’ he said.
Earlier this year a parliamentary committee recommended in its report that an independent police complaints unit within the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission should be established.
There have been calls for the unit to be established immediately following the Lawyer X revelations.
POLICE CONDUCT ‘REPREHENSIBLE’: HIGH COURT
Victoria Police was slammed by the High Court over its use of a high-profile gangland lawyer — dubbed Lawyer X — to inform on her criminal clients, with the Premier ordering a royal commission into the legal scandal that could see more than 600 cases tainted.
After a legal battle spanning more than four years, the Herald Sun has revealed the Director of Public Prosecutions will send out letters to at least 20 former clients of Lawyer X to inform them their convictions may have been compromised.
The move could see some of Victoria’s most high profile criminals, including drug kingpin Tony Mokbel and mafia figure Pat Barbaro, walk out of jail.
In making the landmark decision to allow the notifications to go out, the High Court slammed Victoria Police over “reprehensible” and “atrocious” conduct, saying: “It is greatly to be hoped that it will never be repeated.”
As the government announced a royal commission into the police use of Lawyer X, also known as “informer 3838”, those closest have described it as the biggest scandal in Australia’s legal history.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the $7.5 million royal commission would firstly assess the number of cases affected by the conduct of informant 3838 and the recruitment and handling of that human source by Victoria Police.
“We think we can get to the bottom of exactly what has happened, how many convictions it has a direct impact on, and then get any advice and any recommendations ... to ensure that this could never happen again.”
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy faced questions on ABC774 this morning about whether court orders suppressing Lawyer X’s name unfairly cast a cloud over other female lawyers.
“This is a very awkward, unusual and frustrating set of circumstances that we find ourselves in,” she said.
But Ms Hennessy said she was assured there were “very good reasons” why the orders were in place and that she doesn’t “want to go beyond that”.
Mr Andrews said there was some degree of confidence that the practices that occurred last decade were no longer occurring because of other investigations, but the government wanted to be sure.
“There is the prospect of some very well-known individuals walking free, we think it’s appropriate to have this highest and most formal type of inquiry we can have,” he said.
“As I get more and more information on this I’m left in no doubt that a royal commission is what we need to do.”
“How on earth did it happen?” he asked.
The royal commission will be set up in weeks to start hearings in early 2019, and by July 1 will have to find out how many Victorians are affected by the saga, and how many convictions are affected.
The full report will be handed down by December 1 next year.
New Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said: “Only a royal commission will get the answers needed so that something like this can never happen again.”
THE ROYAL COMMISSION
Mr Andrews ordered the royal commission into the Lawyer X scandal.
The inquiry will consider matters including:
* The number of, and extent to which, cases were affected by the conduct of Lawyer X as a human source and the recruitment, handling and management of Lawyer X as a human source by Victoria Police;
* Current management processes for human sources with legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege, including continued compliance with the recommendations of the 2015 IBAC report;
* The use in the criminal justice system of information from human sources who are subject to legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege, including any safeguards in the way in which cases are assessed and recommended for prosecution, and prosecuted by Victoria Police and the Office of Public Prosecutions;
* Recommended measures to address failures in Victoria Police’s processes for the recruitment, handling and management of human sources who are subject to legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege, and in the use of such human source information in the criminal justice system, including how those failures may be avoided in future.
TOP COP FEARED INFORMER WOULD BE KILLED
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said in a prepared statement on Monday that Victoria Police would co-operate fully with a royal commission.
“I want to make it clear at the outset that I acknowledge the decision of the High Court which has determined that our use of a lawyer as an informer between 2005 and 2009 was not appropriate,” he said.
“It is important to stress that Victoria Police has implemented substantial reforms since 2009 that have comprehensively changed the way that we manage informers, indeed what happened between 2005 and 2009 could not happen under our current policies.”
Mr Ashton said in the press conference he had been told 20 people would be given letters by the Director of Public Prosecutions informing them their cases may be tainted.
Another two would be written to by the Commonwealth Office of Public Prosecutions.
Mr Ashton said the force had established a taskforce, codenamed Landow, to deal with the legal implications.
He also took the opportunity to defend the organisation, which employed the tactic while the gangland war raged, stating that he supported the officers who had “acted in good faith”.
“The Royal Commission will determine what mistakes were made,’’ he said.
Mr Ashton said the informer remained at risk.
He said they believed the informer would be murdered if the information came out, and said he would not apologise for appealing the case to the High Court.
‘OFFICERS HAVE OUR FULL SUPPORT’: POLICE UNION
Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said he wanted to offer his “complete support” to past and present police officers throughout the investigation process.
“In light of the Government’s announcement of a royal commission into investigative practices employed by Victoria Police over a decade ago, The Police Association Victoria would like to publicly reassure any of our members impacted, both past and present, that they will have our complete support throughout this process,” he said.
“We have full confidence that they acted in good faith in what was an extremely complex policing environment and an incredibly dangerous period in Victoria’s history.”
Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC confirmed she would send out notifications to the former clients of Lawyer X.
Lawyer X was a registered informer from 2005 to 2009.
“Following judgments published today by the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Victoria, I have written to 20 individuals in relation to their criminal prosecutions,” Ms Judd said in statement on Monday.
“Other cases are being assessed. If appropriate, I will also write to those affected individuals.”
The Herald Sun believes as many as 631 cases could be affected.
WHO COULD WALK FREE?
Drug boss Tony Mokbel and his brother Milad are believed to be among the seven.
Mafia head Pat Barbaro, and major drug traffickers Rob Karam and John Higgs are among numerous organised crime barons who could also walk out of jail or have their sentences slashed as a result.
As the police scheme — devised in a bid to stop the gangland war — faced increasing scrutiny in closed courts over the past four years, unprecedented suppressions stopped the Herald Sun from revealing the full extent of the Lawyer X scandal.
But the High Court’s decision published on Monday morning to allow the DPP to alert criminals over the “systemic” misconduct is expected to trigger a domino of revelations and legal actions which will embroil police bosses, government agencies, some in the judiciary and political leaders.
In highly-secretive court documents, the lawyer was also known as EF.
“EF’s (Lawyer X’s) actions in purporting to act as counsel for the Convicted Persons while covertly informing against them were fundamental and appalling breaches of EF’s obligations as counsel to her clients and of EF’s (Lawyer X’s) duties to the court,” the High Court said.
“Likewise, Victoria Police were guilty of reprehensible conduct in knowingly encouraging EF (Lawyer X) to do as she did and were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of the sworn duty of every police officer to discharge all duties imposed on them faithfully and according to law without favour or affection, malice or ill-will.
“The prosecution of each convicted person was corrupted in a manner which debased fundamental premises of the criminal justice system.
“The public interest favouring disclosure is compelling: the maintenance of the integrity of the criminal justice system demands that the information be disclosed and that the propriety of each Convicted Person’s conviction be re-examined in light of the information.
“The public interest in preserving EF’s (Lawyer X’s) anonymity must be subordinated to the integrity of the criminal justice system.”
In deciding to lift the veil of secrecy over the scandal, the High Court said: “The very great importance of ensuring that the court’s processes are used fairly and of preserving public confidence in the court meant that the public interest in disclosure outweighed the public interest in immunity.”
WHAT DOES THE INFORMER SCANDAL MEAN?
Lawyer X’s actions are unprecedented in Australia’s criminal history.
Lawyer X used the secrets of her clients, and others she had dealings with, many of which were provided under the cloak of confidential privilege, to aid police in their prosecutions.
Lawyer X’s recruitment as an informer also brings into question the actions of police command, including former chief commissioners Simon Overland and Christine Nixon, as well as prosecuting and government agencies who were thought to be privy to the arrangement.
There had already been calls for a royal commission.
Lawyer X had dealings with some of the gangland’s biggest names including Mokbel, Carl Williams and Mick Gatto.
Others included the Calabrian Mafia’s biggest drug cooks, outlaw bikies and the most deadly triggermen of the gangland war.
Lawyer X was officially registered by the “Human Source Unit’’ as informer 3838 in 2005, with her information pivotal to the gangland taskforce headed by Mr Overland, called Purana.
As a registered informer, she provided 128 verbal briefings to police and about 5500 information reports.
But her informing is believed to have begun years beforehand.
Mr Overland is thought to be the architect of several operations under scrutiny.
High-ranking officers have been accused of abandoning protocols in protecting Lawyer X’s conflicted status, known in legal circles as an “agent provocateur”.
Her informer role also created a bitter divide between Mr Overland, then chief commissioner, and his deputy Sir Ken Jones, who warned of an “abuse of the criminal court process”.
WHICH CASES DID LAWYER X INFORM ON?
Among her informing, Lawyer X provided information reports over the 2003 murder of male prostitute and self-proclaimed vampire Shane Chartres-Abbott and the so-called Tomato Tins case involving the importation of 15 million ecstasy tablets organised by the Calabrian Mafia.
Tomato Tins syndicate member and Mokbel associate Rob Karam, serving a 37-year sentence over multiple commercial quantity drug trafficking convictions, was the first to launch an appeal on July 22, 2016.
Calabrian mafia boss Pasquale ‘Pat’ Barbaro intends to appeal his conviction because Lawyer X was his lawyer.
It is claimed the lawyer was used by police to intercept a “bill of lading’’ identifying the drug-filled container in the Tomato Tins case and acted as an “agent provocateur’’ in a bugging sting.
It can be revealed Mr Overland had meetings with Lawyer X, some at the Kew Golf Club, as part of his strategy to end the gangland war.
Lawyer X was deregistered as an informer after 2009 after a falling out with police.
WHAT THE LETTERS TO CRIMINALS WILL SAY
A Supreme Court document released today reveals what the Director of Public Prosecutions sought to tell convicted criminals in the “disclosure letters” alerting them that their cases could have been tainted.
“IBAC produced a confidential report (the “Kellam Report”) last year, relating to the use by Victoria Police of a certain legal practitioner (to whom I will refer as ‘‘3838’’) as a registered human source — that is, a police informer,” the notification letter proposes to say.
“The matter that I wish to disclose to you is that the material contained in the Kellam Report could be interpreted to mean that at or about a time when 3838 was your legal representative in relation to charges for which you were later convicted, 3838 was also providing information to Victoria Police about you, in possible breach of legal professional privilege and/or in breach of a duty of confidentiality.”
Letters to four criminals were also proposed to include: “Further, I wish to disclose to you that some material contained in the Kellam Report could also be interpreted to mean that certain persons who made statements against you, in the matters for which you were convicted, may have been legally represented by 3838 at or about the same time that 3838 was providing information to Victoria Police about those persons, and possible breach of legal professional privilege and/or in breach of a duty of confidentiality.”
HOW WAS THE SCANDAL EXPOSED?
An anti-corruption IBAC inquiry in 2014 — conducted by Justice Murray Kellam AO QC — was sparked by the Herald Sun’s investigation into the issue.
The IBAC inquiry, known as Operation Leven, found that police had failed to act in accordance with its policies and their use of Lawyer X “had the potential to have adversely affected the administration of justice in Victoria’’.
During the course of the inquiry, more than 5500 documents were examined and 14 witnesses gave sworn evidence.
Today, the IBAC Commissioner, Robert Redlich QC said he supported the royal commission.
“IBAC’s investigation by Mr Kellam found serious mismanagement of human source information and concluded that Victoria Police had failed to act in accordance with proper policies and procedures,” Commissioner Redlich said.
“In keeping with IBAC’s police oversight jurisdiction, Operation Leven focused on the conduct of Victoria Police personnel. It is appropriate that a royal commission with broader terms of reference should examine the potential impact on the administration of justice in relevant cases.”
IBAC said Operation Leven report made 16 recommendations to Victoria Police, including to improve its policies, systems and practices for the management of human sources.
He said Victoria Police had advised IBAC all of the recommendations had been implemented.
Commissioner Redlich said IBAC has not publicly released the Operation Leven report because of the highly sensitive and confidential nature of the material examined, and serious concerns about the risks to the safety and welfare of people involved.
THE COST OF PROTECTING LAWYER X
Victoria Police has since spent millions of dollars attempting to protect Lawyer X, the integrity of its informer program and its convictions.
Lawyer X previously told the Supreme Court that the “whole world” knew who she was soon after the Herald Sun revealed the scandal of her informing in March, 2014.
“When I say ‘the whole world,’ I probably should clarify that to anyone who would have a reason to harm me, because the people — a lot of people in prison, the Herald Sun is their Bible. It’s known as the Bible in there,” she said in evidence.
“There was a — initially, when the first article came out and it said (Lawyer X) there was a bit of speculation about who it was. But as more articles came out, anyone who would want to do me harm or was sitting in prison would read the stories about (Lawyer X) and know it was me.”
She said she became a “persona non grata” to her colleagues in the legal profession.
The police high-risk strategy may not only cost them convictions but could lead to charges against officers over the systemic misconduct in a scheme that endangered lives.
Some officers who worked closely with Lawyer X expressed disquiet at the time about the legalities of her use as a source.
The tipping point of the saga came two years after the informer scandal was exposed.
The force was blindsided when then DPP John Champion decided he must send letters informing all those represented by the lawyer their cases may have been tainted due to her informer status.
It forced Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in 2016 to take civil action against the DPP to stop the letters being sent — which would confirm Lawyer X was an informer.
It was taken to the Supreme Court before Justice Timothy Ginnane, who ruled against police, before police appealed and lost at the Supreme Court and finally the High Court over two years.
Lawyer X was also party to the action, with evidence also given by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
It was so secretive it was labelled AB v CD v EF.
Last month, the High Court of Australia rejected the police’s last-gasp appeal.
As in other related cases, the justices have been highly critical of Victoria Police’s tactics.
The decision has already applied pressure on the Andrews Government to establish a Royal Commission into police corruption.
A police taskforce has been formed to handle the Lawyer X cases.
Subpoenas have been lodged demanding information which was protected under Public Interest Immunity — a legal protection for informers and sensitive police information — until last month.
It is not known whether Lawyer X is the only lawyer to have turned police informer.
HOW USE OF INFORMERS IS COMMON AND ‘IMPORTANT’
Mr Andrews said decisions on public hearings would be made later, and some closed sessions likely.
“In everything from violent crime, organised crime, countering violent extremism, counter-terrorism command, drugs, much of what Victoria Police does... the use of informants is a very important part of that. You would want to make sure you weren’t cutting across any of that and putting individuals or indeed officers, members of Victoria Police, at risk.”
He said he has confidence in the work of Mr Ashton, and that he had no information implicating Mr Ashton in the case over the last decade.
“I have no knowledge of that,” he said.
The premier said he had to be careful about what he said about the process.
“The safety of at least one individual is at risk,” he said.
“Potentially the children of that person is at risk if we are loose... in terms of commentary.”
“It’s not about getting angry, you have got to get this right.
Police Minister Lisa Neville was briefed in mid-2016 about some of the legal matters being explored that related to human source handling at Victoria Police.
Ms Neville said the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission had ensured changes recommended in a 2015 inquiry into police processes had been implemented but a royal commission would ensure any other issues related to the case were assessed.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said the royal commission was endorsed by Cabinet because of the powers it has to call witnesses and procure documents.
“The conditions and the reference that the royal commission would be provided effectively will go to how we managed to find ourselves in this position at this point in time,” she said.
“It is absolutely essential that we have a criminal justice system whereby the sentences that are meted out are done so lawfully and appropriately and that very serious offenders are help accountable for their offences.”
LEGAL SCANDAL OVER GANGLAND WAR TACTIC