Victoria Police royal commission: Graham Ashton could step aside from police response

Victoria’s top cop has denied wrongdoing in the Lawyer X case, but concedes someone else may need to handle the police response.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. Picture: AAP

Victoria’s top cop Graham Ashton has conceded he may be required to step aside from handing Victoria Police’s response to a Royal Commission into the handling of informant Lawyer X, but has denied that he has personally been involved in wrongdoing.

Mr Ashton, who was previously at the Office of Police Integrity, has spoken out about his own role in the emerging scandal, including sitting on the steering committees that oversaw two murder investigation taskforces, which involved Lawyer X.

Speaking to ABC Melbourne’s John Faine, he said he was “confident in my own knowledge and role in this that I’ve done nothing wrong”.

Mr Ashton pointed out that there had been numerous inquiries, including by the independent broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission, into events that occurred during Melbourne’s gangland war, none of which found he had been involved in unethical or illegal conduct.

“I assume that I will be one of many police officers called to the Royal Commission,” he said

“I will be as truthful and frank as I can be.

“Any suggestion I’ve done something illegal; that would have been dealt with at the time. It wasn’t; there was nothing to find. So I take confidence from that.”

Mr Ashton said there was nothing from preventing him from continuing in his role but conceded that he might have to recuse himself from handing Victoria Police’s response to the Royal Commission.

“That’s a fair question because it’s something I want to discuss with the Royal Commissioner when they’re appointed,” he said.

“Do they want me to recuse myself from any responsibility? If the Royal Commissioner thinks that’s appropriate I will take steps to do that.”

Mr Ashton also moved to discredit allegations raised in The Age today that Lawyer X was involved in a sexual relationship with her police handler at the time she was acting as a prosecutor and informing on her clients.

“It’s something the Royal Commission will look at. I’m very confident that when that matter will be examined it will be found to be unsubstantiated,” he said.

The Chief Commission again defended the actions of police in the wake of the Lawyer X revelations. Lawyer X, who has not been identified for legal reasons, became a police informant during the height of Melbourne’s gangland period, while at the same time representing many of those charged with criminal offences throughout. He said they continued to have his “full support”.

“How many lives were saved by the underworld killings being stopped? When you’ve got people being shot at Auskick events with kids running everywhere, they will be turning their minds to that.”

He denied that he was saying that the ends justified the means but: “These are the things people had to deal with at the time”.

Victoria Police now had policies in place that “would have absolutely changed the course of events”, Mr Ashton said.