Lawyer X informant scandal a disaster, says former judge

Former Victorian Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague says the Lawyer X scandal undermines the legal system.

SA Police Commissioner Mal Hyde faces the Budget and Finance Committee at Parliament House in Adelaide.

Former Victorian Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague has branded the Lawyer X scandal engulfing the state a “disaster”, saying it has undermined the integrity of the legal system.

Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy revealed on Wednesday that the police informant at the centre of the scandal — also known as “3838” and Lawyer X — had been registered as an informant since 1995, a decade earlier than police initially advised.

It further emerged that anothe­r five police informants, includin­g other lawyers, who held “obligations of confidentiality” would be investigated by the royal commission into the management of police informants.

The commission confirmed yesterday that it would hold its first directions hearing next Frida­y. Commissioner Margaret McMurdo AC and counsel assisting the commission Chris Winnek­e QC will both make opening statements.

Mr Teague, who headed the inquiry into the Black Saturday fires, said the scandal would requir­e intense scrutiny.

“What information that is in the public at the moment … it will take a lot of investigation as to be satisfied as to how these things came about,” he told ABC Radio.

Mr Teague said the scandal had tainted the integrity of the legal system. “This does undermine confidence in a way that’s totally understandable,” he said.

Meanwhile, police assurances came after NSW Bar Association president Tim Game SC request­ed a meeting with the state’s law-enforcement agencies and public prosecutors in the wake of the Lawyer X revelations to “seek assuran­ces as to whether these matters were occurring in NSW”.

The NSW Police Force issued a statement, saying it had conduct­ed an audit of its use of informan­ts going as far back as 2003, and “no evidence of alleged breaches of legal professional privilege” had been identified.

Mr Game saidhis association had met “the DPP, NSW Crime Commission, law-enforcement commission and NSW police regarding lawyer informant­s and informants more generally”.

South Australia Police said it had protocols in place to ensure the “highest standard of integrity and ethical behaviour” using human source information, while the Queensland Police Service said its practice was “not to use professionals as informants when they havecontractual arrangements with other parties involved.”

Former SA police commissioner Malcolm Hyde was forced to stand down as one of two royal commissioners this week, citing a perceived conflict of interest due to a 30-year career with Victoria Police, which ended in 1997.

Victoria Police said the mistake was due to shortcomings in record-keeping practices.

The Australian revealed yesterday that Lawyer X, then a promising final-year law student, was busted for drug-trafficking in 1993 after police raided her share house and found $82,000 worth of amphetamines.

Two months later, the trafficking charge against Lawyer X, a member of a prominent legal famil­y and the niece of a Victorian Supreme Court judge, was dropped. She pleaded guilty to the less serious charge of possession and no conviction was recorded.

Royal commission public hearings are expected to start mid to late next month, with applic­ations from those wishing to appea­r due by next Friday.

The commission is due to repor­t by July 1 on the number of, and exten­t to which, cases may have been affected by Lawyer X’s conduct; and on all remaining matters under its terms of reference by December 1.