Murdered lawyer’s computer may hold mafia don’s freedom

Jailed mafia don Rocco Arico hopes the computer of murdered lawyer and police informer Joe Acquaro may hold the key to his release from jail.

Rocco Arico, behind bars for drug trafficking and extortion, is appealing his 2017 conviction. Picture: David Crosling

The computer of murdered lawyer and police informer Joe Acquaro may be the key to jailed mafia don Rocco Arico being released from prison.

Arico, behind bars for drug trafficking and extortion, is appealing his 2017 conviction.

The Court of Appeal heard that part of his case was a claim that police seized legally privileged documents of his lawyer, Mr Acquaro, after he was murdered outside his Brunswick East Gelobar cafe in 2016.

Arico’s lawyer Paul Holdenson, QC, told the court there was evidence that gangland police officer Senior Constable Paul Thomas was “involved” in the taskforce that brought Arico down – dubbed Operation Kinvo – and had also seized the computer and privileged documents of his murdered lawyer.

“Thomas was actively involved as an investigator … had involvement in the investigation of Operation Kinvo and he is the person … who reviewed the computer and other items,” Mr Holdenson said.

“He says, ‘but it wasn’t disseminated and wasn’t used’.”

But Mr Holdensen said that evidence “cannot be accepted” because Sen Constable Thomas was “actively involved” in the investigation against Arico – including by conducting interviews with other witnesses and a suspect.

He also pointed to another officer at the anti-gangland Purana taskforce, Harala Bakos, who reviewed material from Mr Acquaro’s computer.

Joe Acquaro was assessed by Victoria Police for registration as a police informer.

“Who knows what he did with it,” Mr Holdenson said, stating there must be “some possibility” that Purana detectives made notes or created documents from the computer.

Mr Holdenson said Arico’s appeal had “multiple” limbs, each having a sound legal basis.

“What makes this case different from some – not all – is Acquaro was an informer against clients and he was the solicitor for Mr Arico in this case and involved in the defence,” he told the court.

“He was there.”

Mr Holdensen said it could be said there was a failure to disclose to Arico that his lawyer was informing against people – including his own family members.

Therefore, Mr Acquaro was not providing independent legal advice to Arico in preparing his defence, he argued.

The court also heard there were mysterious meetings between Operation Kinvo officers and Acquaro’s handler, Officer “Pierce”.

Police later claimed no Operation Kinvo officer had any dealings with Acquaro as an informer.

But Mr Holdenson said he had recently found documents for the first time suggesting that “Officer Pierce”, Acquaro’s handler, had worked on Operation Kinvo in 2014 and 2015, raising questions.

Arico’s lawyers want police to produce documents, which they would rely on to appeal his drug conviction.

A Judicial Registrar rejected this request, with the document fight now running in the Court of Appeal.

Justice David Beach will hand down his decision over the documents at a later date.

In both 2008 and 2014, Acquaro was assessed by Victoria Police for registration as a police informer.

His clients included Italian organised crime figures.

During his first meetings with police in 2008, Acquaro was given human source registration number RFA06/08.

In 2014, he was assigned the number “F710FDB”.

Police say both files remained in an “assessment phase’’ and Acquaro was not formally registered as an informer.

“Acquaro was never formally approved or registered as a human source, essentially because he was considered to be unreliable and prone to leaking to the press,’’ police state.