Lawyer X: Police threaten court action to stop ex-cop’s public evidence

Tensions flared at the royal commission into police informants, as Victoria Police attempted to silence an ex-cop.

Wayne Strawhorn, left, arrives to front the commission. Picture: Sarah Matray

Tensions between Victoria Police and a royal commission established to examine its use of a defence barrister as an informant have come to a head after police threatened to go to court to stop a corrupt former cop from giving evidence in public.

The testimony of retired drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn was abruptly halted when counsel for Victoria Police, Saul Holt QC, warned that his evidence would put at risk the life of a drug dealer who’d previously ratted on powerful criminal associates.

“The risks are serious and I would respectfully ask that these issues be dealt with by private hearing and if not, Commissioner, may I ask that this issue be referred as a question of law to the Supreme Court,’’ Mr Holt said.

Barrister Saul Holt. Picture: Jono Searle

Commissioner Margaret McMurdo reluctantly agreed but said she wanted as much as possible of Strawhorn’s evidence to be given in open hearing.

Strawhorn, a former drug squad detective jailed for supplying a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine to gangster Mark Moran, earlier recounted his dealings with the defence barrister known as Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo.

Strawhorn told the hearing that his first encounter with the lawyer and registered police informant was in late 1998, when she met him at a Melbourne cafe to arrange for her client, a criminal charged with serious drug offences, to provide information against senior figures in a heroin importation cartel.

Counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Chris Winneke QC, said Ms Gobbo was also the lawyer for some of the drug associates her client was preparing to inform against.

In a statement to the Commission, Strawhorn said he travelled to Sydney with Ms Gobbo and her client in late 1998 so they could meet with NSW crime commission investigators.

“I was contacted by Ms Gobbo on behalf of informer two to have a meeting to discuss the parameters of him becoming an informer,’’ Strawhorn said.

“I certainly have no recollection of any dealings with her prior to that.’’

Stawhorn later introduced Ms Gobbo to members of the Major Fraud Squad who registered her as an informant and used her to build a money laundering case against her boss at the time, the principal of a prominent criminal law firm. No charges were ever laid against her boss, who can’t be named for legal reasons.

Mr Holt’s interjection was prompted by Mr Strawhorn accidentally naming informer two in open hearing.

Ms McMurdo ordered the name be stricken from the record and not reported outside the hearing.

“This is the difficulty, with respect,” Mr Holt said.

Ms McMurdo: “Well, you’ll just have to work around it.’’

Mr Holt: “This is about protecting something that is core protected by pubic interest immunity; the name of the human source.’’

The hearing was closed for the remainder of the day.

The Commission has been frustrated by the failure of police to provide information about Ms Gobbo’s activities as an informer between 1995 and 2012 and whether she contributed to the conviction of her own clients.

Victoria Police fought for four years to prevent Ms Gobbo’s activities as a registered police informant from becoming public. The High Court last year ordered the disclosures be made in the public interest.

The hearing continues Wednesday.