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Overland changes evidence as Lawyer X boss reveals fresh details
The former chief commissioner has alleged he told his boss about Nicola Gobbo’s role just as the barrister-turned-informer’s former manager submits fresh details.
Naomi Neilson
Last December, officers dropped by the royal commission to submit diaries belonging to Simon Overland – diaries the former chief commissioner insisted did not exist. Now that he has had the chance to rethink his examination, Mr Overland has resubmitted more evidence and it shifts blame over to his Victoria Police boss, Christine Nixon.
“The indications from my diary that I did brief the chief commissioner in relation to Ms Gobbo’s registration further demonstrates in my mind, from the outset of being made aware of Ms Gobbo’s use as a human source, I appreciated the sensitives of such use and notified my commanding officer of the issue,” Mr Overland said in his statement.
He told the royal commission in December that he could not remember if he told chief commissioner Ms Nixon that a lawyer had been recruited, but his new evidence now points to meetings in which he believes he might have.
Last year, Ms Nixon told the commission that she was never told Ms Gobbo had been registered and would have found out in 2018 with media reports.
“Having now reviewed my diary I note that I was involved in 14 meetings with Ms Nixon regarding Purana Task Force matters and I believe that I did, in fact, inform her of Ms Gobbo’s recruitment on 29 September 2005,” Mr Overland told the commission.
Mr Overland said he did not recall these diaries existed due to his “busy” career. When he initially took the stand, he said he never kept diaries or daybooks. The commission will continue examining these new diaries in light of new and contrary evidence.
Former Lawyer X boss says police conduct was ‘despicable’
While the commission was in its summer break, it released evidence from Ms Gobbo’s former boss, Alex Lewenberg, who said that, while he had no knowledge she was with Victoria Police at the time, the conduct was “despicable” and “unjustified”.
He told the commission in a statement: “The fact that current and former Victoria Police induced, encouraged and permitted a legal practitioner to act as an informer against her own clients and other legal practitioners who acted for those clients is a despicable matter and breaks what must be regarded as the basic rule that prosecution is fair.
“Those in charge, then and some who are in charge now, demonstrated a willingness to act immorally and unethically and compelled others do the same to secure arrest of anyone at a price that appears to be unjustified.”
Mr Lewenberg said he became concerned by Ms Gobbo’s socialising with his criminal clients and with police officers, having noticed her social conduct.
“Being rather conservative, I regarded a young single woman mixing with people who had been charged with criminal offences…. and going out at night with them drinking, as not my idea of a right life for a single woman,” Mr Lewenberg said.
In his statement, Mr Lewenberg added that his clients told him they were approached by officers asking for evidence of money laundering and drug offences by the veteran in exchange for either limiting charges or dropping them entirely.
At one point, Mr Lewenberg alleged his client Peter Reid had been approached by the corrupt former drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn and told that Mr Reid will have his slate cleaned if he planted 1 gram of heroin on Mr Lewenberg.
“While Ms Gobbo was a solicitor at my firm, and shortly after, a number of my clients told me that police officers had approached them and told them that their legal problem would go away if they could provide police evidence against me,” he said.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
