Worst drug criminals could walk free with compo cheques, Premier Daniel Andrews says
Premier Daniel Andrews says it is possible the state’s worst drug criminals could be paid compensation following the Lawyer X scandal. It comes after it was revealed one of former top cop Simon Overland’s key detectives was directing gangland suspects to Lawyer X.
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Premier Daniel Andrews says it is possible the state’s worst drug dealers could be paid compensation following the Lawyer X police informer scandal.
The government is preparing itself to have to hand out cheques to criminals if a Royal Commission finds they were wrongly convicted because of evidence supplied by Lawyer X.
“No one is happy to contemplate the notion that would see people walk free, let alone walk free with a compensation cheque,” Mr Andrews said.
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“Making no comment on their conduct, as a matter of law if you are wrongly convicted, in that strictly legal sense, because evidence used to secure your conviction was not appropriately sourced, not appropriately used then regardless of the crime you committed you may well be eligible for a compensation payment.
“That is a long established principle.”
He said the Royal Commission would set the framework for who should be granted clemency and compensation.
Mr Andrews said the first step of the Royal Commission would be to establish how many people are affected by the scandal and then to investigate safeguards needed to ensure it didn’t happen again.
The two commissioners would be top legal figures from interstate and removed from the Victorian criminal justice system.
COPS TOLD GANG SUSPECTS: GO TO LAWYER X
One of former top cop Simon Overland’s key detectives was directing gangland suspects to Lawyer X, it can be revealed.
Mr Overland, architect of the scheme in which Lawyer X informed on her clients, is under increasing pressure to explain his role, as sources close to her handlers admit that police bosses knew it was putting “lives at risk”.
The Herald Sun can now reveal allegations that a “point person”, a major crimes detective, was ordered to encourage suspects picked up for questioning to engage Lawyer X to represent them.
Lawyer X would then advise the suspects to give evidence that would bolster police cases against bigger targets, obtain information which would enable police to set up stings, or convince them to turn informer themselves.
Solicitor Zarah Garde-Wilson says that one 18-year-old was told by Lawyer X to confess, despite there being little corroborating evidence against him.
A police insider close to the scheme has told the Herald Sun that everyone involved understood that the “judicial system was manipulated”, but they were under orders from Mr Overland to push ahead.
“We were risking our lives and the lives of our assets,” one said.
A furious Mr Overland, now chief executive of Whittlesea Council, lashed out at a Herald Sun photographer yesterday morning, trying to slap a camera out of his hands.
Former detective Paul Dale, who Lawyer X sought to implicate in the murder of police informer Terence Hodson, yesterday told The Australian he felt sorry for her.
“It’s the chief commissioners and assistant commissioners who have done this — they are the ones that need to be absolutely held accountable,” he said.
‘WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE WELFARE OF THAT PERSON’: ASHTON
Current chief commissioner Graham Ashton said the secrecy surrounding the scandal was to protect Lawyer X and not aimed at stopping information from becoming public.
“Information that we had and still have is around extreme risk to that person from their identity being known and therefore there is a duty to try and make that we’re able to protect that information,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“That really had nothing to do with not wanting to have these things run in the papers or in the public. It was about that duty to protect the welfare of that person.”
Mr Ashton said his knowledge and role in the Lawyer X scandal had already been examined in previous inquiries including by IBAC and they did not find anything.
“There was nothing there to find,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“That’s not just me saying that, that’s having that validated by others and by independent reviews and I take confidence from that ...”
Mr Ashton said he would speak with the person leading the royal commission into the matter to determine whether he should recuse himself from leading the Victoria Police response.
He said it was not for him to determine whether police had acted unethically.
“The question that really is that you’re making an assumption that something unethical did happen and there was misconduct that did occur,” Mr Ashton said.
“That’s something the royal commission will determine on way or the other.”
Mr Ashton said he did not believe reports about a senior police officer having an intimate relationship with Lawyer X at the same time as she was having an intimate relationships with clients.
“That’s not stated as any sort of fact,” he said.
“No I don’t believe it’s true ... I’m very confident that when that gets examined that it’ll be found to be unsubstantiated. But again, that’ll be a matter for the royal commission.”
In other developments in the Lawyer X scandal:
FORMER Purana detectives were summoned to crisis meetings at Victoria Police’s headquarters on Tuesday night;
LAWYER X is being hailed as “the saviour” by convicted criminals who are now expecting to get off, one underworld source says;
POLICE began withdrawing Lawyer X from court cases during the height of her informing activities, because of fears that the subterfuge would be revealed as a perversion of justice, it has emerged;
FRESH claims have been made that a former senior police officer in the informer unit which handled Lawyer X had an historic affair with her, though he denied it in 2014;
DRUG lord Tony Mokbel has received letters from the Director of Public Prosecutions advising that his conviction might have been compromised;
MELBOURNE-based Calabrian mafia boss Frank Madafferi intends to launch a bid to overturn his conviction over Australia’s biggest ecstasy seizure;
ASSISTANT Commissioner Luke Cornelius was on the Informant Management Committee but did not join until May 2010, after Lawyer X had been deregistered. Mr Cornelius is said to have been unaware that she had been used to inform on clients.
Sources close to the unit that handled police informers, which was set up by Mr Overland, provided more detail yesterday about how Mr Overland drove the Lawyer X scheme and also resisted challenges from those who raised concerns about it.
Sir Ken Jones, who joined the force as deputy commissioner in 2009, months after Mr Overland became police chief, was one of few senior officers who took him on over the scheme, sources say.
Many officers caught up in the Lawyer X scheme, which was exposed by the Herald Sun in 2014, are understood now to be keen to give evidence to the royal commission that was announced on Monday.
“Everything we ever did was written down,” one police insider warned.
INSIDERS: LAWYER X WAS ‘MANIPULATIVE MASTERMIND’
On Monday, the High Court described the scheme as “atrocious” and “reprehensible”.
It emerged that at least 20 criminals were being sent letters by the Director of Public Prosecutions advising them of fears the scheme could have tainted their convictions.
The police had been resisting that move for two years.
Among those expected to be quizzed in the royal commission will be a senior officer who left the force suddenly around 2013.
He has vehemently denied to the Herald Sun being involved in a sexual relationship with Lawyer X.
But Lawyer X told the Herald Sun in 2014 they did have a sexual relationship and that he should not have been on the steering committee that made decisions about her role.
Lawyer X told the Herald Sun: “It was 13 years ago. Why would I say that if it wasn’t true?”
— with Tamsin Rose
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