Lawyer X Investigation Wound Up - Was It A Waste Of Time?

Two weeks ago saw the conclusion of one of the worst scandals to ever hit Victoria Police and the end result was...nothing!

That's right, the Lawyer X Scandal which threatened to bring down parts of Victorian Police and heaven forbid actually force some accountability on them ended with basically everyone being let off with no consequences whatsoever.

If you're as confused about this as I am, there's many more who will be scratching their heads.

The Lawyer X Scandal came about courtesy of Victoria Police trying to hide the name of an informant who had actually informed police about the very clients she was representing; gangland figures between 2005 and 2010 including the likes of Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. That informant was lawyer Nicola Gobbo.

Nicola Gobbo during her career as a barrister

While she was trying to defend clients like Williams and Mokbel, she was simultaneously informing police about conversations and actions. Not only was this a gross breach of attorney/client privilege, but this also had the potential to and certainly corrupted several criminal court proceedings and on top of that, NO ONE in Victoria Police saw an issue with using a barrister to bring down gangland figures.

So at this point, we have a barrister and police colluding to bring down gangland figures and apparently no one had a problem with this. I guess for Victoria Police, the ends justified the means but corrupting criminal proceedings is a disgrace.

In 2018, Victoria Police were called out by the High Court for their reprehensible use of a barrister as an informant and finally, in 2019, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) saw fit to inform many criminals that their proceedings may have been corrupted.

By this time, Premier Daniel Andrews had acted, announcing a Royal Commission into the handling of police informants by Victorian Police. The commission took many statements, questioned many, including Gobbo and the hierarchy of Victoria Police and then handed down its report in 2020.

There was a belief from the Royal Commission that there had been potential law-breaking so one of the most important recommendations was to appoint a Special Investigator that was independent of both Victoria Police and the DPP to see if there should be charges laid. Subsequently, former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle was appointed as Special Investigator to see if charges should be laid.

Nettle conducted his work as a Special Investigator should, testing and re-testing the evidence while applying the law to determine if in his mind there should be charges. Nettle ultimately decided that there should be charges laid and passed on his recommendation to Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd. To the absolute astonishment of Nettle, Judd turned around and after looking at the recommendation basically said she wasn't going to file charges against the police officers involved.

Nettle then wrote a scathing letter to the Parliament basically suggesting that due to the fact that his view and Judd's were on the opposite ends of the spectrum, the government should either take action to wind up his office or; if they decide to continue pursuing this matter, to appoint someone else whose views were more closely aligned to the DPP.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes basically responded by saying "Thank you for your service but if there's no likelihood of prosecution then there's no real point continuing this any further" and wound up the office of the Special Investigator.

So after spending $125m on the Royal Commission into the Handling of Police Informants and an estimated $25m spent on the office of the Special Investigator, what was the grand sum of the $150m? Absolutely bloody zero!

While I am confused, I wish I could say I was surprised but unfortunately, after a lot of the strange things that have occurred in Victoria over the last few years, this just adds to a growing list.

Thanks to the inability of the DPP to accept the recommendations of the Special Investigator, what we have essentially learned is that it is potentially acceptable for Victoria Police to use a barrister as a police informer to inform on their own clients and potentially corrupt justice.

I know that logically doesn't make sense but that's the only conclusion right now that seems valid and the other conclusion here is that the taxpayer has dropped $150m on this for the grand return of NOTHING!

What the hell was the point of it all if it was going to end like this?