Lawyer X: Whistleblowers say former top cop Simon Overland has been ‘let off hook’

Whistleblowers from inside the office set up to investigate the Lawyer X scandal have revealed bombshell information about former top cop Simon Overland.

Special investigators probing the Lawyer X scandal say former top cop Simon Overland has been “let off the hook”.

Whistleblowers from inside the Office of the Special Investigator say the team wanted Mr Overland charged and were confident they had enough evidence to secure a conviction.

They say that Mr Overland – who was central in the hiring of barrister Nicola Gobbo to inform on her clients – was, in fact, the main target of the OSI and was under active investigation by the body.

Investigators believed they had a “smoking gun” to implicate Mr Overland and were due to send a brief of evidence to Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd for consideration, the sources have revealed.

Whistleblowers say the Office of Special Investigator team wanted former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland charged. Picture: AAP

But with their office being disbanded they fear no one will bear responsibility for one of the darkest chapters in Victoria’s criminal history.

The OSI shut down earlier this month, amid anger from Special Investigator Justice Geoffrey Nettle that Ms Judd had repeatedly refused to support recommendations that several police officers should be charged.

“Simon has been let off the hook,” a furious whistleblower inside the OSI told the Herald Sun

“He was the one the OSI really wanted.”

Whistleblowers also revealed that former chief Graham Ashton – who was also criticised by the Lawyer X royal commission – and assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius were also in the sights of investigators.

It comes just days after the Herald Sun revealed that sources in the OSI, established by the government in the wake of the commission, claimed Ms Judd had “expressed doubt that we could get anywhere” just months after the body was established.

Ms Judd this week denied those claims, but there is anger that the DPP and not Justice Nettle – one of Australia’s most eminent legal minds – had the ultimate power to decide whether charges should be laid over the scandal.

With the OPP working daily with police on prosecutions and a number former directors and senior prosecutors having been involved in cases, sources said OSI investigators were privately concerned that a conflict of interest arose because that same office was now being asked to consider prosecution of those involved in the use of Gobbo as a human source.

Regarding Mr Overland, the OSI believed that any and all wrongdoing connected to the Lawyer X scandal happened under his watch.

As head of the Purana taskforce – established in 2003 to investigate the Melbourne gangland killings – Mr Overland was central to the decision to use Gobbo as an informer in a desperate bid to bring the underworld war under control.

Ms Gobbo, who was the go-to lawyer for key gangland figures, provided police crucial information about her own clients that helped roll underworld hitmen and drug cooks against high-profile underworld bosses including Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams.

Mr Overland was heavily criticised by the Lawyer X royal commission for prioritising ending the underworld war over the “grave risks” associated with using Ms Gobbo as an informer.

The inquiry found Mr Overland did not immediately seek legal advice on Ms Gobbo’s role because he was worried it would halt the flow of information he needed to stop the tit-for-tat murders.

Whistleblowers claim Simon Overland was central in the hiring of barrister Nicola Gobbo to inform on her clients.

“Having considered Mr Overland’s contentions, the commission is of the view that the most likely reason that he did not obtain legal advice was that he feared it would limit the information he hoped to obtain from Ms (Nicola) Gobbo to help solve the gangland wars,” royal commissioner Margaret McMurdo concluded.

“It is no answer to criticism for police officers, particularly those in senior, supervisory roles, to say that responsibility lay elsewhere or that matters were outside of their chain of command.

“Once they knew of the grave risks of the situation and the questionable conduct of both Ms Gobbo and other police officers, they were obliged to either address it, or satisfy themselves that others were appropriately doing so.”

Assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius was in the sights of investigators, sources say. Picture: Daniel Pockett

As was former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton.

Mr Overland was among several current and former police whose actions should be investigated as having potentially constituted “misconduct”, the inquiry found.

OSI whistleblowers have now confirmed that Mr Overland had been a focal point almost immediately after it was set up in 2021 to probe whether charges should be laid against police and Ms Gobbo.

It was believed a detailed strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis prepared in 2008, and presented to Mr Overland around the use of Ms Gobbo, was the “smoking gun” investigators needed.

Examiners at the royal commission described the SWOT analysis as a “bomb” that would have stopped his promotion to chief commissioner in 2009.

It detailed concerns about using Ms Gobbo as an informer, including the potential for a review into “legal ethical implications”.

“Serving barrister assisting police. Consideration of unsafe verdicts and possible appeals. Prosecutions current, Mokbel and future?” it said.

Mr Overland insisted he couldn’t recall seeing the analysis, but later conceded he had received a copy.

During the royal commission into Lawyer X Gobbo described Overland as “evil, corrupt and dishonest”.

“I was always led to believe that he was well aware of my informing and that he was a huge supporter and encourager of it,” she said.

“There were often circumstances in which I was – would say to my handler, whichever handler I was with at the time … ‘Are you sure, are you sure you know what you’re doing’?’

“And each and every time they would say to me that their bosses had approved of it and … Simon Overland was specifically aware of what I was doing and that he had approved of it.”