Comment: End of Lawyer X saga marks new quest for justice

With the findings of the Lawyer X commission now released the fight for the truth is over — but a new search for justice has only just begun.

The truth is out there, finally.

It’s been six-and-a-half years since the Herald Sun first revealed the Lawyer X files.

Victoria Police and their once secret informer Nicola Gobbo have since spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to keep their secret from exposure.

But yesterday’s Lawyer X royal commission findings, by Justice Margaret McMurdo, was symbolic.

It means the fight for the truth is over. The police lost. Now, a new fight begins.

The royal commission has recommended that police officers, as well as Nicola Gobbo, face a special investigator. They could be charged with criminal offences for their conduct.

It is unclear how many police officers face questioning about their poor choices. Dozens, perhaps. That they must, stamps the moment as one of the darkest days in the force’s 167-year history.

Gobbo told police about her clients in a systemic operation that corrupted the criminal justice system.

It’s been more than six years since the Herald Sun first exposed the Lawyer X files — who would later be revealed as Nicola Gobbo

She was addicted to her secret life and Victoria Police, in turn, was hooked on her intelligence.

The truth is that Victoria Police knew the arrangement was questionable in 2012.

Indeed, some officers were aware years earlier.

Take this chat between a police handler and Gobbo in June, 2007.

“But I guess it’s only a problem if you get caught …” the handler said.

“Imagine how many clients will sue me for ethical breaches …” Gobbo said.

In the same chat, the handler said: “It’s not something we want to keep sh***ing in the face of the law and the system … I don’t think you’ve broken the law as such but if, yeah, if it ever comes out, it would be frowned upon, wouldn’t it?”

Nicola Gobbo with infamous gangland boss Carl Williams and hit man Andrew `Benji’ Veniamin at Dhakota Williams’ christening

Such thinking helps explain why, in 2014, Victoria Police launched a legal blitzkrieg against the Lawyer X exposure.

On 15 occasions, Victoria Police went to a judge to demand that the Gobbo story not be published by this newspaper. They threatened Herald Sun journalists with criminal charges.

The royal commission has found that police officers acted outside the rules in part because the rules precluded Gobbo’s use as a source.

Now a special investigator will determine if such motivations equate to breaking the law.

Yesterday’s findings become the official record of an unprecedented cover-up.

A “profound failure” is how police chief commissioner Shane Patton described Gobbo’s use yesterday.

His language is recognition that the truth is finally out there.

It does not mean, however, that Victoria Police will not resist it for many more years to come.

Originally published as Comment: End of Lawyer X saga marks new quest for justice