Lawyer X information of ‘no value’, royal commission hears
The senior Victoria Police officer who ordered Lawyer X’s police handlers’ unit be “sacked” earlier registered Nicola Gobbo as a human source.
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The senior officer who ordered Lawyer X’s police handlers’ unit be “sacked” earlier registered Nicola Gobbo as a human source.
Former Victoria Police assistant commissioner Jeff Pope was part of a committee that recommended the Source Development Unit — who were Gobbo’s handlers at the height of her gangland informing between 2005 to 2009 — be shut down in 2012.
Mr Pope registered Gobbo as a human source in 1999, when the lawyer was providing information to him about allegedly fraudulent behaviour by her employer.
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Mr Pope dealt with Gobbo as a source for a number of months in 1999, but ultimately found her information of “no value”.
Victoria Police is also now investigating the “relationship” Mr Pope had with Gobbo, the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants heard.
The 2012 Covert Service Review, which Mr Pope was part of, recommended the closure of the unit — the recommendation was adopted by the then chief commissioner Ken Lay.
Its work was partly informed by the 2011 Comrie report, which was sparked after Victoria Police commissioned legal advice that said Gobbo’s use of a human source could lead to convictions of gangland figures being declared unsafe.
The Comrie report said the failure of the handlers to recognise the risk of using Gobbo to inform on her clients — which included Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams — led the force to “reconsider the capacity of such persons to be entrusted to undertake these critical roles”.
Geoff Chettle QC, acting for the SDU officers said former chief commissioner Neil Comrie never spoke to his clients before making adverse findings against them.
He said his clients had felt force command had “thrown them under the bus” and there was “great angst” at the closure of their unit.
Giving evidence assistant commissioner Neil Paterson agreed “procedural fairness” and “natural justice” were denied to members of the SDU, but said Mr Comrie’s report on Gobbo’s informing was “on the papers’” police held.
But Mr Chettle said the SDU’s full contact with Gobbo was only held on a computer at the unit, which Mr Comrie did not access.
Mr Comrie’s report was sparked after police tried to use Gobbo as a public witness in an investigation into the murder of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine.
In 2009 senior officers overseeing the Petra Taskforce — which was investigating the Hodsons’ killing — including then deputy commissioner Simon Overland wanted to use Gobbo as a witness against the suspect, former police officer Paul Dale.
The former’s officer legal team subpoenaed Victoria Police about documents relating to Gobbo, which led to police seeking legal advice over her use as a source.
The charges against Dale were withdrawn.
Mr Chettle said the SDU sent Mr Overland written advice on the “risks of transferring from a human source to a Petra witness.”
During Mr Paterson’s evidence, Commissioner Margaret McMurdo said there had been many weeks of “frustration” with the trickle of documents coming from Victoria Police, flagging it was making it difficult for the commission’s reporting timelines to be met.