If you're just joining us, here is what you need to know about the royal commission's final report into barrister-turned-police-informer Nicola Gobbo, and the role of Victoria Police in the legal scandal.
- The commission, led by former judge Margaret McMurdo, has recommended the establishment of a special investigator to consider whether criminal charges should be brought against current and former members of Victoria Police, as well as Ms Gobbo.
- The final report, which is four volumes long and runs to more than 1000 pages, is a stinging indictment of the conduct of Victoria Police and their most prolific informer.
- Some of Victoria's most distinguished crime fighters from its current and former ranks could be referred to the special investigator and face prosecution.
- The convictions or findings of guilt of 1011 people may have been affected by Victoria Police's use of Ms Gobbo as a human source. The commission has released the names of 124 affected people, of which around 70 are still in jail.
- The commission could not conclusively determine whether 12 other "potential Gobbos" - legal professionals with obligations of confidentiality or privilege - may have inappropriately provided information against clients and others, because Victoria Police kept secret 11 human source files. It has called on the government to appoint an independent auditor to get to the bottom of the enduring question.
- Interestingly, the commission has stopped short of recommending a total ban on using lawyers as informers.
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Here is Shane Patton's full statement in response to the royal commission's findings:
I would like to make clear today Victoria Police’s absolute acknowledgement that the management of Nicola Gobbo as a human source and the manner in which the information she provided was used, was a profound failure by our organisation that must not, and will not, ever be repeated.
As Victoria Police has previously stated, it was an indefensible interference in the lawyer-client relationship that is a fundamental requirement for the proper functioning of our criminal justice system.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton.Credit:Eddie Jim
Victoria Police has a proud history of keeping the community safe, built on the foundations of mutual respect and trust. This was a breach of that trust.
As Chief Commissioner, I have apologised to the courts and to the community for what occurred and I do so again today. I also apologise for our failure to identify and disclose what was occurring at the time.
It has often been conveyed in the media that Victoria Police has failed to take responsibility. I want to be abundantly clear that I do not believe, and nor has it ever been submitted by Victoria Police, that ‘the ends justified the means’. That is not my position.
While the police at the time were certainly grappling with extraordinarily challenging and dangerous times, I reiterate that the ends, did not, and never do, justify the means.
Victoria Police has come a long way since the events under examination at this Royal Commission took place. Significant reforms have been introduced that have overhauled our human source management practices. As a result, our systems for dealing with a human source who may have obligations of confidentiality and privilege are vastly improved.
As the commissioner noted, we are one of the few Australian law enforcement agencies that adopts specific rules and safeguards for the use of human sources involving legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege.
In parallel, there has been a concerted and committed drive to strengthen our culture over recent years, in which the highest standards of conduct are expected of every police officer.
In today’s Victoria Police, what happened with Ms Gobbo simply could not occur. That said, this royal commission has identified areas in which Victoria Police can further improve, and as Chief Commissioner I am committed to ensuring these opportunities are fully realised.
To that end I have initiated a new taskforce, Taskforce Reset, that will lead our organisational response on all matters arising out of the [commission].
The taskforce will report directly to Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam and will be provided with all the resources necessary to ensure it is able to deliver fully on its remit.
This royal commission has been a deeply difficult experience for some of our serving and veteran police officers who have been required to reflect closely on the decisions they made up to 27 years ago.
It was a failure of Victoria Police governance and management that our police officers were operating in a complex and high-risk environment without the training, resources, policies and support that they needed to do their jobs properly.
The royal commission has shown that our framework for the management of human sources was at the time wholly insufficient for the task at hand and did not provide the robust structure needed to ensure better decisions were being made.
Victoria Police will cooperate fully with any further criminal and discipline inquiries which arise because of this royal commission into the conduct of individual officers.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the enormous amount of work done by Victoria Police in support of this commission.
At the start in December 2018, Victoria Police committed to cooperating fully and we have done just that. It has been an enormous and challenging task and has involved searching through millions of emails and documents spanning 27 years.
In total Victoria Police has:
- Identified, located and searched over 52 million records
- Individually reviewed approximately 600,000 emails
- Produced 980 diary entries totalling 22,000 pages
- Transcribed and produced 230 hours of recordings
- Produced in total 75,000 documents totalling 650,000 pages
While we have had to be conscious of the significant safety risks arising to members of the community from the information contained in these documents, we have worked tirelessly to support the work of the commission and searched for and produced documents regardless of whether they reflected well or poorly on Victoria Police or any current or former officers.
If you're a Melburnian – or a fan of the TV series Underbelly – chances are you're familiar with the anti-gangland Purana taskforce.
The commission's report says Nicola Gobbo represented the interest of the gangland taskforce, rather than her clients, particularly when it came to a couple of key underworld turncoats.
Then-Senior Sergeant Stuart Bateson leads members of the Purana taskforce away from Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2003.Credit:Michael Rayner
One of them, whose real identity cannot be revealed, was the first of the gangland criminals to "break the wall of silence" and turn police witness.
Known as "Mr McGrath" during the commission, the evidence he gave was valuable against the likes of notorious gangland boss Carl Williams. Ms Gobbo represented Mr McGrath after he was arrested.
Although officers said Mr McGrath was already willing to cooperate with police, the commission in its final report today says Ms Gobbo made revisions to his evidence, in the presence of police, without taking instructions from him.
Her advice to him also prompted him to change his account and strengthen the police case, the commission's report says.
Had her full role been disclosed, Commissioner Margaret McMurdo says it may have significantly and favourably changed the legal position of those he incriminated, who Ms Gobbo then also went on to represent.
As for another key gangland witness, known only by the pseudonym Mr Thomas, the commission says Ms Gobbo acted as his lawyer and kept her police handlers up to date about his mental state and attitude towards assisting them.
"She was clearly representing the interests of the Purana taskforce rather than providing independent advice in her discussions with Mr Thomas," the commission states.
Ms Gobbo told her handlers that she advised Mr Thomas, who also gave evidence against Williams, that "just giving up Carl Williams will not be enough" and he'd need to give Purana "everything".
The commission's final report also explores why and how Nicola Gobbo became an informer.
The patterns of behaviour, Commissioner Margaret McMurdo noted, were discernible even at the early stage of her involvement with police from 1995 to 1999.
"Her motivation was in part self-protective," the report says.
Nicola Gobbo during an interview with the ABC's 7.30 program last year.Credit:ABC
In 1995, Ms Gobbo was first registered as an informer while she was still studying law at Melbourne University after she supplied information to police about her boyfriend, who was under investigation for drug trafficking.
It was clearly in her interest to help police then, Ms McMurdo said, as she would be dealt with leniently.
This was also the case when she decided to dob in another lawyer to police over allegations they were laundering money, leading to her second registration as an informer in 1999.
But Ms McMurdo writes, Ms Gobbo was not just willing to assist, but "conspicuously eager to do so".
"Indeed, she appeared 'over' and 'confident' in her disclosures. She did more than simply respond to police inquiries; she cultivated and engineered opportunities to meet with and communicate information to police," the commissioner states.
"She seemed to relish her social contact with them. She sought to do more than neutrally communicate information, often enthusiastically and proactively suggesting areas and people to investigate."
When Ms Gobbo gave evidence to the commission hearings last year, she spoke of the need to feel "valued" and to be the "holder of every bit of information".
She also pointed to her 'Type A' personality that drove her to be the "best human source she could be" and to the death of her father when she was young, which the commission noted made her long for the approval of older, especially male figures.
Victoria's police chief Shane Patton has announced a new taskforce will be established to respond to the findings of the royal commission.
In responding to the scathing report released by Commissioner Margaret McMurdo today, Mr Patton acknowledged the Gobbo scandal was a "profound failure by our organisation". Mr Patton's predecessor Graham Ashton has been slammed by the commission for failing to act on the matter back in 2011.
Victoria Police Commissioner Shane Patton. Credit:Justin McManus
"It must not and will not happen again," he said, adding the action of police were an "indefensible interference of the lawyer-client relationship".
However, Mr Patton disputed suggestions that Victoria Police had justified their use of Ms Gobbo as an informer at a time when they were desperate to end Melbourne's bloody gangland war. He insisted police have never said the "ends justified the means".
The new taskforce - dubbed Taskforce Reset - will address all the matters raised in the commission, Mr Patton said.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton is due to address the media about the royal commission's final, stinging report. You can watch his press conference live, below:
The Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre has echoed the Greens' calls for the government to hand more investigative powers - and funds - to IBAC.
"The royal commission has recommended that the IBAC have the capacity, skilled staff and resourcing required to hold Victoria Police accountable for human rights abuses, misconduct or acts of corruption," said Anthony Kelly, the legal centre's chief executive.
Now is the time for IBAC to be handed more power to investigate police, the Flemington and Kensington Legal Centre says.
"There are now no more excuses for Premier Andrews to act on this."
Mr Kelly said the Andrews government has been sitting on an important parliamentary report that recommends IBAC independently investigate most allegations serious police corruption and misconduct for the past two years.
"The recommendations of the earlier 2018 parliamentary report have now been backed up by the [royal commission's] findings," Mr Kelly said, referring to the commission's recommendation that a special investigator be appointed to examine police.
Mr Kelly said the legal centre's police accountability project has estimated that only a tiny percentage of Victoria Police’s $3.5 billion budget would be required to run a fully resourced, well-staffed, independent investigative division within IBAC.
"Victoria needs a system that has enough clout and resources to effectively and rapidly investigate police abuse and police-contact deaths, is publicly transparent, supports and includes victims and their families and is truly independent," he said.
The Victorian Greens have seized the opportunity to call for the government to give more power and money to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to investigate police.
"Currently police officers themselves investigate nearly all complaints about their colleagues because IBAC lacks the resources to do so," the Greens said in a statement this afternoon.
"The state government has repeatedly delayed responding to recommendations for IBAC to be funded for this role, claiming that their hands were tied until the royal commission had completed its work.
"A 2018 parliamentary inquiry, anti-corruption groups and the Greens have repeatedly called for an independent body such as IBAC to have the oversight role along with the necessary funding, given ongoing reports of excessive force and misconduct, and because broader discretionary powers have been provided to police and PSOs."
Victorian Greens spokesperson for integrity, Dr Tim Read, said IBAC should be empowered and funded to independently oversee the police, rather than the police themselves.
"Today’s report means there’s no longer any excuse for allowing police to investigate their friends and colleagues," Mr Read said.
"There is now no excuse for the state government not to create a truly independent and well-resourced police anti-corruption body."
In its final report, the commission has released a list of the 124 people whose cases may have been been tainted by Nicola Gobbo's informing. Some people are only listed by the pseudonym.
The commission actually identified 1011 cases that may have been affected by Ms Gobbo. Of those cases, counsel assisting the commission used 124 of them as case studies to examine how they might have been tainted.
In 36 of cases, the commission said the evidence used in their prosecution was improperly or illegally obtained from Ms Gobbo and she also represented them as a lawyer.
In 71 cases, she didn't act for them, but the commission considers the evidence may have been improperly or illegally obtained.
In 85 cases, Ms Gobbo acted for them, and also either provided information about them, or assisted or tried to assist in their prosecution before or during the period she represented them.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy has said the government will act on all recommendations made by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.
In a statement released just before she addressed the media this afternoon, Ms Hennessy said the government intended to address the "significant historical shortfalls in the criminal justice system", and as recommended, would appoint an implementation taskforce and implementation monitor to oversee the implementation of all recommendations.
Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.Credit:Justin McManus
"The commissioner has also recommended a special investigator be established - and where criminal conduct or police misconduct may have occurred, the government will ensure it is thoroughly investigated," the statement says.
That role will be introduced as soon as possible.
"The commission's findings are serious and significant and individuals and organisations must be held accountable," Ms Hennessy said.
"We've already taken action to make appeal proceedings more efficient and transparent - allowing for further appeals if new evidence emerges showing a substantial miscarriage of justice - and if we need to go further, we will.
"There is still a long and challenging road ahead, but we will do whatever it takes to restore confidence in our justice system."
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2020-11-30 05:08:00Z
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