No immunity for ‘Lawyer X’, police chief says
Nicola Gobbo has not been given immunity for potential criminal charges linked to Victoria’s ‘Lawyer X’ scandal, the state’s police boss says.
Damning evidence continues to flow at a royal commission into the force’s handling of barrister Ms Gobbo, who was informing police while representing some of the state’s major gangland criminals.
“No she hasn’t been given any immunity as far as I’m aware,” Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told ABC radio on Thursday.
The force will be guided by the recommendations of the commission as to whether criminal charges should be laid, he added.
“If there are any misdeeds that they report then if it requires anyone to be charged … if it is her, we would probably get IBAC involved,” Mr Ashton said, pointing to the corruption watchdog due to the police force’s involvement.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo has slammed police for failing to meet deadlines when providing evidence to the inquiry. But Mr Ashton defended the force as his officers trawl through millions of documents and remove sensitive information, including names of people who could be at risk of harm if identified.
“What’s in the documents that might pose a safety risk? That’s our big problem, is doing that assessment work in a timely fashion,” he said.
He insisted the force could not avoid that scrutiny of documents because it is “our obligation at law”.
The royal commission continues on Thursday, with evidence from “Sandy White”, a pseudonym given to one of Ms Gobbo’s previous police handlers.