Ex-chief commissioner Graham Ashton may have learned about Gobbo informing a year earlier
Victoria Police’s former chief commissioner Graham Ashton may have known lawyer Nicola Gobbo was informing on her underworld clients much earlier than he claims.
Police & Courts
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Former chief commissioner Graham Ashton knew about supergrass Nicola Gobbo’s informing a year earlier than he admits, the Lawyer X royal commission may find.
Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke QC, has also suggested Commissioner Margaret McMurdo conclude the circumstances in which Gobbo was recruited and managed by Victoria Police “resulted in her being placed in grave danger of being murdered or seriously injured”.
During Mr Ashton’s questioning in the witness box last year, the then chief of Victoria Police said he learned Gobbo was a registered police informer in 2007.
But Mr Winneke says it is open for Ms McMurdo to find he knew of Gobbo’s secret role in July, 2006.
The significance of when Mr Ashton knew of Gobbo’s status relates to a secret Office of Police Integrity hearing, set to question Gobbo about police corruption. Mr Ashton was OPI deputy director at the time. The body is now defunct.
It was put to Mr Ashton during his royal commission examination that then Victoria Police assistant commissioner Simon Overland asked him to scrap the hearing to protect Gobbo’s informer role being exposed. Another senior police officer, Luke Cornelius, was also at the meeting.
“On the evidence, it is open to the Commissioner to find that Mr Ashton was briefed as to Ms Gobbo’s status as a human source on 27 July 2006,’’ the submission says.
“At the time, the commissioner may find, Mr Overland did not want Gobbo’s status as an informer exposed.’’
Diary entries of other senior officers managing Gobbo have been coupled with the abrupt end to the OPI investigation.
It was feared putting Gobbo before a coercive hearing could have led to questions about her police contact.
In turn, her evidence could have been subpoenaed by lawyers acting for underworld figures, putting her life at risk.
Mr Ashton’s decision to stop keeping a diary — which is standard police practice — had ‘’no reasonable justification’’, the submission says.
The Lawyer X royal commission has also probed joint investigations between Victoria Police and the OPI, its oversight body. These have been highlighted by counsel assisting as a conflict of interest.
In the submissions, potential criminal charges against three senior officers are flagged. But on Wednesday, the Office of Public Prosecutions issued a statement declaring it did not investigate crimes. “The Director’s functions are prosecutorial rather than investigatory,’’ it said.
Under law, a brief of evidence in “admissible form’’ would have to be compiled before any prosecution could be considered.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, said she would not comment on individual cases.
The Police Association of Victoria backed its members, saying: “This was an extremely complex and unprecedented set of circumstances during a particularly dangerous time.’’
LAWYER X: INSIDE AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST GANGLAND SCANDAL
* Explosive new revelations and exclusive extracts from gripping new book Lawyer X, by Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, only in the Herald Sun and heraldsun.com.au this weekend
* Lawyer X, the story of how one woman played off police and criminals, is published by HarperCollins Australia on September 7. Pre-order your copy now at Booktopia
* Live online Q&A with Dowsley and Carlyon, hosted by Sky News’ Peter Stefanovic, on their battle to expose the truth. Send questions to ask.lawyerx@news.com.au and watch at facebook.com/heraldsun or facebook.com/TrueCrimeAustralia at 6.30pm AEST, September 9
* Watch Peter Stefanovic’s compelling two-part documentary Lawyer X: The Untold Story on Sky News at 8pm AEST, September 12 and 19
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