Victoria Chief Police Commissioner hits out at costs of Lawyer X inquiry

Victoria’s top cop says the Lawyer X inquiry will lead to more criminal appeals and compromises the force’s ability to fight crime.

Nicola Gobbo has been revealed as Lawyer X. Picture: ABC.

Victoria’s Chief Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says there will be more appeals of gangland-era criminal convictions as a result of the Lawyer X Royal Commission, which he says is costing his organisation $1.5 million a month and compromising the force’s ability to fight crime.

Victoria’s Attorney-General Jill Hennessy yesterday granted gangland killer Farouk Orman a petition of mercy and sent his case directly to the Court of Appeal for consideration saying there was “credible evidence” there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Ashton told 3AW radio’s Neil Mitchell he expects more convictions to be challenged because of the use of criminal barrister Nicola Gobbo as a police informant providing information against her clients.

“There will be a number of matters through this case that will wind up in the appeals court, through other ways, other than through the attorney’s office,” Mr Ashton said.

“You’ll see a number of matters in the appeals court I should think.”

“It’s all part of this process, people will want to test their convictions.

“She (Gobbo) was a very active criminal lawyer she represented a lot of people.”

He said he expected compensation claims as a result of the appeals.

Royal Commissioner Magaret McMurdo has expressed frustration at the time police have taken to hand over documents to the royal commission and has threatened legal action as a consequence of the delays.

Mr Ashton conceded it had taken a long time but said there had been no attempt to frustrate the commission.

He said there were about 100 Victoria police staff were currently working on the force’s response to the commission, many of whom were sworn officers from the crime command.

“They’re coming off crime command, they’re coming off some of our most serious investigations we’re conducting,” Mr Ashton said.

“It’s the equivalent of two 24 hour police stations or more than that of staff”.

He said this use of officers meant the response to some investigations of serious crime would be compromised or delayed.

“It affects the investigations that they otherwise would have been be doing, absolutely”

“But we get the priority of supplying the material and so we understand that it comes at a cost.

“There’s very serious matters that get investigated in crime command all the time and people have come away from those.

“The sort of work that happens in crime command, it’s serious organised crime work. The squads are all in there, your homicide squad, your armed offenders, arson and all those specialist squads.

“There would be a number of investigations, I don’t know specifically which ones, but if you take those staff out of crime, service delivery would be affected.

Mr Ashton said the commission was costing Victoria Police about $1.5 million a month from the police budget.

He said the police decision to use Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, as an informant was made during the “very difficult” situation of the Melbourne’s gangland era.

“ At the time, what police had to deal with was a very difficult situation, and someone was able to assist in dealing with that crime,” he said.

“Police have taken information from someone that was able to assist them.

“I think if they hadn’t done that, where would they have been in relation to some of those matters as well.

“So there’s a lot to be taken into account, it’s not just the matter of the fact that police used a lawyer as a human source, there’s a lot of complexity in that, that police had to deal with.”