Six informers including two other solicitors caught up in Lawyer X probe
Police tried to recruit two solicitors as human sources and got information from a now dead lawyer, the royal commission into police informants has heard.
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Police tried to recruit two solicitors as human sources and got information from a now dead lawyer, the royal commission into police informants has heard.
The $7.5 million inquiry sparked after the Herald Sun revealed a gangland barrister, known as Lawyer X, had provided information to police on her clients kicked off revealing details about six more people who may have breached legal privilege by informing.
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Commission chair Margaret McMurdo said Victoria Police had told the commission and the Independent Broad-Based Anti Corruption Commission there were six “possible police informants” who required assessment to ascertain “if there had been any possible breaches of legal professional privilege.”
She said on February 13 police also had revealed Lawyer X — who informed on members of Tony Mokbel’s drug cartel and those involved in the tomato tin ecstacy bust — was first registered as an informant in 1995 — 10 years earlier than first admitted.
Justice McMurdo said one solicitor met with police in April 2014 was listed as a “community contact” but police said he was not approved as an informant due the risks posed by his profession. His file was deactived one month later.
She said police had also spoken to a former solicitor “with serious health issues” but due to those issues police told the commission he never provided information, his file was deactived three days after it was opened in February 2015.
But police told the commission it was provided information by a now deceased practising lawyer but this matter was the subject of “an ongoing homicide investigation”.
That person is belived to be slain mafia lawyer Joe Acquaro.
A court clerk registered in January 2015, was deemed too “unreliable and risky to use in the long term”, police told the commission, and another “court clerk or legal secretary” was not a practising lawyer or privy to legal advice.”
A legal secretary of a corporation was listed as a “community contact” in January 2015 and deactived five months later and a sixth person who was a “self-proclaimed legal advisor” was registered as an informant from December 2015 to January 2016.
The commission has also asked Victoria Police to “urgently identify” if any prisoners are in custody due to information provided by those six”.
Justice McMurdo said the commission would test police’s explanation of all six informants as
well of the force’s recruitment and management of Lawyer X.
Justice McMurdo said the High Court of Australia had found Victoria Police had acted reprehensibly and Lawyer X had committed appalling breaches of her legal obligations to clients. While the director of public prosecutions is believed to have written to 20 criminals whose convictions may be unsafe due to Lawyer X’s informing.
She said examining Lawyer X’s conduct — who the Commission has referred to as ‘EF’, was a matter of high principle fundamental to our democracy.
She said the commission is likely to receive hundreds of thousands of documents from Victoria Police alone and a similar number from other sources. She said many of those documents would be highly-confidential.
Justice McMurdo said while relationship with informant and police handler is necessarily hidden, but secrecy “fosters unsatisfactory practices” and even corruption.
She said the commission will seek to balance the need for secrecy with creating a accountable informer handling system that has “consistent and practical rules” and is subject to independent oversight.
Counsel Assisting the commission Chris Winneke QC said the commission will examine thousands of police diaries and audio recordings between Lawyer X and her handlers.
“These materials will be examined closely in order to determine what information was provided, whether it was provided in breach of duties, and what use it was put to ongoing investigations or prosecutions.”
Mr Winneke said Lawyer X, who the commission has referred to as EF, has indicated, through legal representatives, she will co-operate with the commission. He said the commission will also investigate if police did not disclose Lawyer X’s role as a police informant to state or commonwealth director of public prosecutions.