Royal commission report delayed at final hurdle
The royal commission’s report into Lawyer X has been blocked less than an hour before it was due to be released. The 2000 pages of findings are expected to denounce Victoria Police’s role in the informer scandal.
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An explosive report into the Lawyer X legal scandal has been blocked less than an hour before its damning findings were set to be published.
The key 2000 page report – due to be released on Monday afternoon – was expected to denounce Victoria Police’s “noble cause corruption’’ in their use of underworld barrister-turned-police informer Nicola Gobbo during the height of Melbourne’s tit-for-tat gangland murders.
The report is expected to deliver several adverse findings against the force and Ms Gobbo including possible criminal conduct and professional misconduct by police officers.
But in an eleventh hour decision, the long awaited report to the Royal Commission will no longer be published on Monday.
It is understood the delay comes after Victoria Police requested several redactions be made to the report, which the Royal Commission is carrying out.
The Herald Sun understands the report will be released in the coming days.
Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke QC’s submissions followed 127 days of public hearings examining the use The latest roadblock comes just days after a gangland cop failed in his bid to stop the royal commission naming and shaming him.
The officer, whose identity remains a mystery for now, had attempted to convince the Court of Appeal his name should be suppressed from the Commissioner Margaret McMurdo’s final report which was expected to make adverse findings against him.
The Purana detective had claimed he could be endangered if named and gave evidence of a series of threatening Facebook posts and a “walkover” by two men – one linked to a serious drug trafficker and the other a high-level organised crime family – near his house last year.
But the force’s latest court action has been viewed by the commission as an attempt to save reputations.
The court said suppression orders would make any recommendations by the commission’s “far less potent” and would have a severe impact on the rights of those who may have been the victims of Ms Gobbo’s conduct.
The Royal Commission, called by Premier Daniel Andrews in December 2018, examined Victoria Police’s recruitment, handling and management of their most prolific informer.
Sparked by a four-year investigation by the Herald Sun, the explosive inquiry discovered almost 1300 people may have had their legal cases tainted by the woman dubbed Lawyer X.
More than 80 people, including high-ranking members of Victoria Police, career criminals and Gobbo herself gave sworn testimony from the witness box over the course of the year-long hearings.
It followed a High Court ruling in 2018 which found the actions of Victoria Police as “reprehensible’’ and “atrocious’’.
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* 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