DPP had ‘no worries’ over Nicola Gobbo’s double dealing
The Lawyer X royal commission has heard the Director of Public Prosecutions had “no concerns” when they heard that Victoria Police was using Nicola Gobbo as an informer.
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The Director of Public Prosecutions was told barrister Nicola Gobbo was being used as an informer by Victoria Police but had “no concerns’’, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told the Lawyer X royal commission on Wednesday.
Mr Ashton said in November 2011 — when he was an assistant commissioner — it was decided at a meeting with the force’s chief legal officer, Findlay McRae, that they should begin disclosing Gobbo’s informer role.
— Scroll down to read the emails
Among the prosecutions police were concerned were tainted was that of drug lord Tony Mokbel.
But it was only in 2018 that 20 convicted people, including Mokbel, were notified their cases may have been compromised.
It was put to Mr Ashton during his third day on the witness stand that John Champion — then Director of Public Prosecutions and now a Supreme Court judge — was told about Gobbo’s informer role as early as June 2012.
But Mr Ashton, who checked with Mr McRae he had carried out the instructions of telling the OPP in a “corridor’’ meeting, testified he was “surprised’’ when the OPP did not act on the information.
“I’d say to Finn … ‘Is the OPP having any concerns … do they want us to take specific action’,” Mr Ashton said.
‘’He (Finn) would say, ‘No, Mr Champion said that he doesn’t think there’s any issue’.’’
Mr McRae, who is still Victoria Police’s director of legal services, has submitted a 100-page statement to the royal commission and will give evidence in the new year.
It is the first time a police officer has implicated a member of the judiciary as knowing about the Lawyer X scandal.
Justice Champion was appointed to the Supreme Court in December 2017.
The Supreme Court issued a statement to the Herald Sun, saying: “As the matter is before the royal commission, it would be inappropriate to comment.”
Judges cannot be compelled to give evidence to the royal commission.
The Herald Sun has previously raised Justice Champion’s potential knowledge of the Lawyer X issue.
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LAWYER X COMMISSIONER DEMANDS ANSWERS
THE NINE QUESIONS GOBBO SHOULD ANSWER
The Herald Sun has confirmed with state OPP sources the briefing was received in mid-2012, but that it was vague.
It is understood it was not until later that year that Victoria Police told Mr Champion they were investigating the possibility she had informed on her own clients, but provided little detail.
On the final day of Mr Ashton’s evidence, the royal commission heard police command didn’t act on concerns about possible tainted convictions until the Herald Sun exposed her double-crossing behaviour in March 2014.