Explosive claim made Simon Overland warned about risk of using Nicola Gobbo as informer
Simon Overland denied he’d seen a damning risk analysis about police use of Nicola Gobbo, but a former colleague says he personally handed the document to the then-commissioner.
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Victoria Police’s former head of crime claimed he passed on a damning risk analysis of lawyer-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo to his then-boss Simon Overland, contradicting the ex-top cop’s previous evidence he never saw the document.
On the penultimate day of the year-long Lawyer X inquiry, doubts were Thursday cast over Mr Overland’s testimony after retired assistant commissioner Dannye Moloney said the former police chief thanked him for bringing the file to his attention at a meeting in early 2009.
The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis was compiled by one of Gobbo’s police handlers after concerns were raised that her secret identity as Informer 3838 could be revealed and multiple gangland convictions overturned as a result of her double dealing.
Mr Moloney said he personally took the document to then-deputy commissioner Overland and current police chief Graham Ashton - then at the police corruption watchdog - at a taskforce briefing investigating the 2004 murders of Terence and Christine Hodson.
“Mr Overland took the document and said that it’s all been considered, it will all be considered and thanks very much for bringing it to us,” Mr Moloney said on Thursday.
“(He) said he knew everything that was in the document,” he said.
Mr Moloney said the men spoke to the analysis, but did not discuss individual aspects or concerns raised within it.
He said he recalled Mr Overland reading the document to himself during the meeting and he indicated he was “fully aware” of its contents.
“My responsibility in regards to this had been handed over right from the start to Mr Overland,” Mr Moloney said.
Mr Overland told the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants in December he had “no recollection of having ever seen this document”.
“I think it is something I would recall had I seen it,” Mr Overland said last year.
Mr Moloney said he never sought legal advice after he was told by Mr Overland of Gobbo’s role as a police supergrass in late 2005.
Asked by the commission why he did not query the use of a defence barrister as a human source, he said no one should be stopped from helping police.
“Why would any person be restricted from coming and supplying information to Victoria Police if it’s protecting the society of Victoria?” Mr Moloney said.
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He said lawyers could act as informers, as long as legal privilege was not breached.
Gobbo became one of the force’s most prolific informers while continuing to represent a number of high-profile crime figures including jailed drug kingpin Tony Mokbel and slain crime boss Carl Williams.
Public hearings into the Royal Commission will conclude on Friday after 127 days of sitting.