New fight to lift underworld informants’ gag orders
Victoria Police is fighting for gag orders to protect the identities of gangland killers and drug dealers who turned on the underworld, which could see their identities concealed until death.
True Crime
Don't miss out on the headlines from True Crime. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Victoria Police is fighting to impose gag orders to protect the identities of gangland killers, drug dealers and gun suppliers who turned on the underworld.
The existence and activities of many criminals, including hitmen who have since walked free from jail after making prosecution deals, could effectively be wiped from history until their deaths.
On Monday, the Lawyer X royal commission and Victoria Police appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeal over the gag orders.
Court action was launched after the commission and police were unable to agree on issues surrounding “tending to identify” gangland figures who became informers and prosecution witnesses.
The commission is seeking to vary 57 suppression orders relating to 30 people whose cases may have been tainted by barrister Nicola Gobbo’s role as a police informer.
At the heart of the dispute are tensions about how the commission will explain to the public the force’s use of Gobbo, recruited as Informer 3838, and the conga line of clients she turned against other clients on behalf of the force.
Many of the gangland informers have historically been referred to by a single pseudonym, which police now oppose.
There are more than 60 parties, including Victoria Police, who are fighting the commission’s attempt to vary the suppression orders on its report, due in November.
Among them is a who’s who of underworld figures who not only want to remain anonymous but want their existence erased from public view.
They include criminals who were “rolled” by Gobbo and police, helping them prosecute other gangland figures in Melbourne’s tit-for-tat drug war between 1998 and 2010.
On Monday, images of two gangland murderers’ relatives were suppressed by the court.
Information now at stake includes specifics such as arrest dates, criminal activities and physical features.
A police spokesman said Victoria Police has not opposed the Royal Commission’s application to vary suppression orders to date.
The Court of Appeal hearings will continue tomorrow.
MORE NEWS
CALABRIAN MAFIA FIGURE ZIRILLI APPEALS ECSTASY CONVICTION