Special office set up to probe Lawyer X scandal to be disbanded

The special office set up to probe Victoria’s Lawyer X scandal will officially be disbanded, four months after former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle sensationally resigned.

Laws to disband the special office set up to investigate Victoria’s Lawyer X scandal have passed parliament.

The Office of Special Investigator will now formally close, four months after former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle sensationally resigned from the office.

The OSI, established by the Andrews government as a result of the damning Lawyer X royal commission, was setup to determine if criminal charges should be laid over the infamous legal affair.

But Justice Nettle resigned amid a public spat over the refusal of Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd to lay any charges as a result of his work.

As a result of the OSI’s work, Judge Nettle had recommended at least five people be charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The Office of Special Investigator will now formally close, four months after former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle sensationally resigned from the office.

In one brief, proposed charges against five officers, his team gathered what he believed were 5000 pages of admissible documentary evidence, many hours of audio recordings and multiple witness statements.

“OSI considered that the brief established a powerful case of offending and therefore expected that the director would approve the charges,” he wrote in a special report.

“The director (Ms Judd) stated that she did not consider that there was a reasonable prospect of conviction against any of those five persons,” he added.

Ms Judd’s decisions to not lay charges cannot be appealed.

Before resigning, Justice Nettle said he had formed the view that the chances of Ms Judd approving any future brief of evidence were “effectively nil”.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd, QC. Picture: Supplied

“I advised the Attorney-General that, in those circumstances, any further investigation of relevant offences by OSI appeared to me to be a waste of time and resources and that I believed that the appropriate course was to recommend to parliament that OSI be wound up,” he said in his report.

“I suggested that OSI cease further investigation and the assessment of evidence, and that the Government propose to parliament the legislative amendment necessary for OSI to be wound up.

“I advised that if the government decided to adopt that course, I would remain as Special Investigator for the time it would take to give effect to that decision; alternatively, if the government decided that OSI should continue, I would resign as Special Investigator to make way for someone whose views as to the weight of evidence required to warrant prosecution for relevant offences more closely accorded to the Director’s position.”