Victoria Police royal commission: former detectives call for Lawyer X probe to be widened

Four retired police detectives want the ­Victoria Police royal commission to delve beyond Lawyer X’s activities.

Retired Victoria Police detective Peter Lalor. Picture: Aaron Francis

Four retired police detectives whose careers and reputations were destroyed by an investigation tainted by Lawyer X want the ­Victoria Police royal commission to delve beyond her activities and examine the way select evidence from unreliable gangland ­informants has polluted the justice system.

Former police detectives Peter Lalor, Noel Ashby, Paul Mullett and David Waters — each embroiled in the long-running, $30 million Briars investigation or its ill-fated offshoot, Operation Diana — believe the police decision to allow a criminal defence lawyer to inform against her ­clients was symptomatic of ­ineptitude and, potentially, corruption within the force.

“God only knows what they were doing,’’ said Mr Lalor, who alongside Mr Waters was publicly accused but never charged with the 2003 murder of Shane Chartres Abbott.

“It seems to have gone rogue.’’

Mr Ashby, who was an assistant commissioner when his career was derailed by a politically charged Diana investigation into leaks from the Briars taskforce, said he would assist the royal commission in any way he could.

Noel Ashby. Picture: David Geraghty

“It shows a breathtaking ­incompetence in contemporary investigative practices or an intent to completely pervert the course of justice in many ways,’’ Mr Ashby said. “Everything is tainted by this.

“What I would like to see is the truth emerge about what really happened. They were prepared to use the criminal justice system for personal gain, rather than the pursuit of criminal justice outcomes.’’

The seven-year Briars investigation, the most expensive in ­Victorian police history, was ­initiated and largely based on the evidence of convicted murderer, self-­confessed perjurer and ­notorious manipulator Jack Price.

It was also shaped by ­information reports provided by human source 3838, the registered informant code for Lawyer X.

George Defteros, a criminal lawyer wrongly accused of being involved in a conspiracy to kill Carl Williams at the height of the gangland war on the word of another unreliable criminal informant, witness 166, also wants his ordeal examined by a royal commission.

Mr Defteros previously raised concerns about the police use of Lawyer X.

“We’ve been calling for a royal commission since 2004,’’ he said. “Finally someone is sitting up and taking notice. It’s taken the High Court to wake people up to the sort of ­corruption that goes on at the highest levels.’’

The High Court this week lifted suppression orders that for two years prevented reporting of a police and judicial scandal centred on the double life of Lawyer X, a gangland lawyer who conspired with police to set up her clients.

Revelations of the extent to which Lawyer X was used by police, including in two highly sensitive taskforce investigations overseen at the time by current Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, prompted a call by anti-corruption campaigner Peter Faris QC for Victoria’s top cop to stand aside until the royal commission completes its work. The call was rejected by Police Minister Lisa Neville, who said Mr Ashton was one of the first senior police figures to raise concerns about Lawyer X.

It is understood that Mr Ashton, who in his previous role with the Office of Police Integrity was on the steering committee of both the Briars investigation into the murder of Chartres Abbott and the Petra investigation into the 2004 murder of police informant Terrence Hodson, was aware that Lawyer X was a police informant.

Then deputy commissioner Simon Overland and Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius, the head of the Ethical Standards Department, were other members of the steering committees for both investigations.

When Mr Ashton first joined Victoria Police in an operational capacity in late 2011, he ordered an internal review into the use of Lawyer X. The findings of that review prompted Mr Ashton to commission Neil Comrie, a retired chief commissioner, to conduct a deeper examination of how Lawyer X had been managed.

On Mr Comrie’s recommendation, Detective Superintendent Doug Fryer was asked to establish a file examining every information report that Lawyer X supplied. She told the Victorian Supreme Court in a secret hearing that she provided about 5500 reports.

Lawyer X revealed in court documents that, in December 2008, she wore a wire to secure evidence from Paul Dale, a police detective suspected of being involved in the murder of Terence Hodson and his wife Christine. Mr Waters, a target of the Briars investigation, yesterday told The Australian he suspected Lawyer X of wearing a wire during one of their meetings.

“I sought legal advice of a general nature from her when the Briars stuff was unfolding,’’ Mr Waters said. “She was coming to me, actively, and saying things like what could they have against you? What evidence could they have? They were pretty strange questions for a solicitor or barrister.’’

Mr Waters said he had since learned that a particular table at a city cafe used by Lawyer X to meet clients was bugged. He suspects that information he provided Lawyer X was fed back to his principal accuser, Price, so he could amend his formal statement. Price swore seven altered statements over as many years.

“She was being used as an undercover,” Mr Waters said. “She wasn’t just an informer passing on information. They were actively sending her into situations to elicit information and encourage people to talk. How many of those information reports have been used as foundations for affidavits for warrants for listening devices and telephone intercepts and God knows what?’’

David Waters. Picture: Aaron Francis

Mr Mullett, a former police ­association secretary who was implicated in Operation Diana and cleared of all charges, said the practices and tactics used in that investigation were “striking similar’’ to how police managed Lawyer X in other cases. “Lawyer X is perhaps the most grievous example of what went on with police informants but it would be a dereliction of the royal commission to stop at her door,’’ he said.

Paul Mullett. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The Briars and Petra investigations were internally announced by Mr Overland in 2007 at a time when Victoria Police was strongly resisting calls for the force to be subjected to the kind of police royal commissions that cleaned the stables in NSW and Queensland. Mr Overland swore in court documents how he believed the twin investigations, aimed at ­exposing the involvement of current and former police in gangland murders, would demonstrate that the force was capable of policing its own affairs. He described this as a “showstopper’’.

When Mr Overland quit the force in June 2011, both investigations were still running. Briars collapsed at trial with the acquittal of three men in 2014; Petra ended meekly in the acquittal of Dale for providing false evidence to the Australian Crime Commission.

Mr Lalor said the victims of Briars were not police wrongly ­accused but the family of Chartres Abbott, whose killer has not been brought to justice.

“We are all sworn officers to see justice administered … no one’s interests were served out of that investigation other than one individual who used it for his CV to get the top job,” he said.

Mr Waters predicted Mr Overland’s words would return to haunt him once the royal commission began. “I can tell you now: this is the showstopper,’’ he said.

Former homicide detective and police union boss Ron Iddles said 10 to 15 “very senior police” would have known what was happening, and warned force bosses in 2009 the situation could trigger a royal commission. “It was always going to come out, I think, and be a mess,” he told 3AW.