Stuart Bateson likely to be called to give evidence at Lawyer X royal commission

A cop whose role in ending Melbourne’s gangland war was featured on TV series Underbelly, may have to give evidence about his recruitment of an underworld lawyer as a police informer.

A cop whose role in ending Melbourne’s gangland war was featured on TV screens will have to give evidence about his recruitment of an underworld lawyer as a police informer.

Stuart Bateson, on whom the main protagonist in the Underbelly series depicting Melbourne’s gangland war was based on, will likely be called to give evidence this month to the Lawyer X royal commission probing police use of barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informer.

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Commander Bateson, a key investigator in the anti-gangland Purana Taskforce credited with breaking the criminal ­code of silence, was the main beneficiary of the more than 5000 pieces of information Gobbo provided about her underworld clients.

The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants will continue hearings tomorrow.

It will examine Gobbo’s ­involvement with police from 1999 to 2003 — when she was not officially registered as an informer.

But later this month, the hearings will switch focus to 2003 and 2004 — a period when she was representing the major figures in Melbourne’s drug trade like Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.

Stuart Bateson will likely be called to give evidence this month to the Lawyer X royal commission probing police use of barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informer. Picture Jay Town

Tony Mokbel and Nicola Gobbo.

A statement on the royal commission’s website said it could also call former police officer Paul Dale, whom Gobbo tried to implicate in the murders of informant Terence Hodson and Hodson’s wife, Christine, in 2004.

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Mr Dale has previously said he would tell all about his involvement with Gobbo.

He has previously said under oath that he had a sexual relationship with Gobbo.

Murder charges against Mr Dale were dropped when underworld boss Williams was killed in Barwon prison in 2010.

It was the push to use Gobbo as a witness in Mr Dale’s murder trial that led to Gobbo severing ties with Victoria Police and winning a multimillion-dollar payout from the force.

Gobbo was to give evidence in Mr Dale’s trial for lying to the Australian Crime Commission about his relationship with Williams, but she was pulled as a witness after senior police were concerned her human source role could also be revealed.

Mr Dale was acquitted at that trial.

The inquiry will also hear from Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill, who authorised using Gobbo as a source.

Former homicide detective Charlie Bezzina and Purana Taskforce detective Phil Swindells could also be called before commissioner Margaret McMurdo.

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