Ex-police union boss Paul Mullett fails in Lawyer X appeal bid against Christine Nixon

A former police union boss who tried to reignite a court fight against former commissioner Christine Nixon with “fresh evidence” from the Lawyer X scandal has failed.

Ex-police union boss Paul Mullett has failed in his attempt to take former police commissioner Christine Nixon back to court over a years-long dispute.

A panel of Court of Appeal judges rejected Mr Mullett’s claim to reignite his battle against the force’s former head over “fresh evidence” from the Lawyer X Royal Commission.

Three judges found it was “futile” to grant the former Police Association secretary an extension of time to lodge his appeal because it had no chance to succeed.

Mr Mullett argued he should have been handed documents “critical” to his case that related to secret police informant and barrister Nicola Gobbo, or Lawyer X, before his civil trial in 2016.

Former Police Association Victoria boss Paul Mullett. Picture: David Crosling

He lost that Supreme Court trial and was denied a multi-million dollar payout from Ms Nixon and other ex-officers after a judge rejected his argument that he was the victim of a malicious prosecution when he was suspended from Victoria Police in 2007.

Mr Mullett was suspended after he was accused of leaking information to the targets of a murder investigation into the death of Shane Chartres-Abbott in 2003.

The self-described vampire gigolo was killed after he threatened to expose police corruption.

Police officers Peter Lalor and David Waters had been suspected of aiding the gunmen that shot him, but they were never charged.

Victoria Police had used Gobbo to elicit information about Chartres-Abbott’s murder and police corruption in a high-level taskforce called Operation Briars.

Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Christine Nixon. Picture: AAP

Mr Mullett’s lawyers earlier argued that had 43 crucial Lawyer X documents been disclosed to him before his 2016 trial, it would have “significantly altered the course of the proceedings”.

But a panel of Supreme Court judges, including justices Anne Ferguson, David Beach and Stephen McLeish, disagreed.

The trio was “not satisfied that there was any breach of discovery or disclosure obligations”.

“Additionally, the court concluded that there was nothing in the new evidence that Mr Mullett sought to rely upon which might give rise to the possibility that, if the evidence had been produced at trial, Mr Mullett may have succeeded in any of his claims against the named defendants,” the appeals panel found.

Mr Mullett’s case against Ms Nixon, ex-Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe, Detective Superintendent Wayne Taylor, the State of Victoria and Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton failed.

He was ordered by the court to pay legal costs for all the parties.