Victoria Police back in court over secret Lawyer X documents
A court will decide if Victoria Police can hand over secret documents to a special investigator, as the force is probed over the Lawyer X scandal.
Police & Courts
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Victoria Police’s chief commissioner and the body investigating the force over potential crimes committed during the Lawyer X scandal are heading to court on Monday.
The Herald Sun understands the Supreme Court litigation has been brought on by the Andrews government-funded Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) after Chief Commissioner Shane Patton failed to hand over the documents it requested to be disclosed.
The ongoing Lawyer X saga has plagued Victoria Police since it was exposed by the Herald Sun in 2014.
It is believed Victoria Police is not opposed to handing over the documents but needs the court’s permission.
The documents could include material dating back more than two decades, including from the 2016-2017 closed court Supreme Court trial — before Justice Timothy Ginnane — involving the Director of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Police and Nicola Gobbo.
The then-chief commissioner Graham Ashton appealed the ruling to the High Court and lost.
Victoria Police has taken issue with some of its most highly guarded secrets being handed over to any other body. It steadfastly refused to divulge the names of 11 secret informers that were requested by the Lawyer X royal commission.
Former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle AC QC is heading up the OSI, to which the Andrews government allocated initial funding of more than $13m, along with special powers.
It is yet to be seen how the government will react to the latest development, with the scandal having already cost upward of an estimated $100m.
Justice Nettle’s role is to establish whether there is sufficient evidence of any criminal offending connected with Victoria Police’s use of Ms Gobbo as a human source.
The Herald Sun can reveal Ms Gobbo has been stateless this year after effectively being forced to leave Australia, following a secret tug of war over her children.
It coincided with the establishment of the OSI.
The Victorian government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the battle.
Sources within Victoria Police have been critical of the handling of Ms Gobbo and her children since the Herald Sun broke the Lawyer X story in 2014.
But Ms Gobbo has shunned police attempts to control her and is understood to have left Australia and is fending for herself and her children overseas.
Her life has been classified by police as being at the highest risk level.
It is believed she has been moving her family every three months as their visas expire.
Ms Gobbo was used in three separate stints as a registered informer between 1995 and 2009, and was critical in cracking Melbourne’s gangland war.
She was deregistered as an informer in 2009 to become a police witness in a murder trial. That trial crumbled when Carl Williams was killed.
Ms Gobbo is also being investigated for any criminal conduct she may have committed during her years as a police spy.
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