Makes one wonder who the real parasites were in this sorry business? Who gained from it all? And at what ethical costs? There seems to be a certain malevolence. Was it all of it for ambition? Was Lawyer X, just a disposable pawn?In a letter she wrote to the Assistant Commissioner of Police in June 2015 seeking additional compensation, LawyerX tells the story of how she became a registered police informer and asks for more money which incidentally is at the root of all evil, someone said.
Re: Assistance to Victoria Police
I refer to our meetings in 2014 and to the letter I wrote to the then chief commissioner Ken Lay (in October 2014) in which I articulated some of my concerns and fears as well as the impact that the revelation of my informer/human source role in the media has had on my life. I refer to and repeat the content of that letter which I will attach to this one in the event that you have not read it.
For the sake of completeness, the response I received from Victoria Police in late 2014 to my letter was nothing but disingenuous and offensive. For the writer to reply by inferring that anyone other than police members were responsible for the leaking of highly sensitive confidential information detailing my role was and is simply absurd.
Of course that was prior to the IBAC report being handed down in which His Honour Justice Kellam made a number of findings, specifically that the manner in which Victoria Police handled me, as an informer/human source, was grossly negligent.
Given that I was not invited to give evidence at the IBAC hearing and nor has any investigator ever spoken to me or offered any kind of explanation as to how not just the fact of my assistance, but the intricate details as well, have become a matter of public knowledge, I remain in a situation in which I accept that this nightmare is not simply going to go away. Nor am I able to take comfort in knowing that those police members who betrayed me have been identified, disciplined or prosecuted. As I think I mentioned to you (or at least to Detective Inspector Ian Campbell), my handlers were aware of intricate personal information about me and when I contemplate where such information may now be, I am disgusted all over again.
As an aside, I consider myself very fortunate that the media appears to have forgotten that when the IBAC inquiry was first announced, their (the Government’s) own media release made it clear that the inquiry was not a general one about informers but rather a specific enquiry into the ‘‘Lawyer X scandal’’.
Whilst I am grateful that Victoria Police applied for and obtained an injunction preventing publication of the IBAC findings, it is clear that some of the content of His Honour’s report has been leaked to the media. I have accepted that I will have to continue to live with the prospect that more details may emerge publicly and, with the assistance of a clinical psychologist and a doctor, I will need to continue to manage the literally paralysing fears and uncertainty as well as heightened danger that impacts upon my existence.
To enable you to try to comprehend the level of actual stress and anxiety I have to manage, I learned only this week that the Calabrian crime family have been informed that police were provided with a copy of the Bill of Lading pertaining to the importation of what remains the world’s largest ever single seizure of MDMA in 2007; they have been told by a journalist that their Bill of Lading was given to police by an informer and that IBAC was provided with the same document which was the subject of specific comment by His Honour Justice Kellam in his final report. It is an understatement to say that over twelve months after the public revelation of me being an informer/human source for Victoria Police, the confirmation that an extremely dangerous Italian organised crime family has learned this type of detail is nothing short of horrifying.
To make any kind of long-term decisions about my future is very difficult because of the continuing problems arising from the original leak to the media of the ‘‘Lawyer X scandal.’’ My treating psychologist has said on occasion that were it not for my children, she does not think I would still be alive; such is the level of my depression, anxiety and PTSD. I have struggled to cope with the fact that my reputation has been completely destroyed and my ability to obtain employment within the legal profession or even utilising my four degrees and experience is hopeless. A Google search of my name is quite literally sickening (to me) let alone googling ‘‘Lawyer X scandal.’’ I also struggle to deal with the fact that any of this has happened given all the assurances I was given (by Police) that my assistance would never be a matter of public knowledge.
I have been forced to live day to day with a degree of hyper-vigilance and fear as to what will come out next and what impact it will have on my life. My anxiety and fears are compounded by the fact that but for some contact I maintain with a handful of former clients (now convicted offenders), neither I nor, more importantly, Victoria Police would be aware of just how dangerous the leaking remains. I have lost faith in assurances I have been given that the IBAC report has not been leaked because it is plainly obvious that the very offenders convicted as a consequence of my assistance are well aware of some of IBAC’s findings.
In any event, the whole issue of how and by whom any information about my assistance was leaked to the media and became a matter of public knowledge, let alone the leaking of IBAC’s findings, remains a matter for your organisation to investigate or resolve. Obviously if I am forced into litigation with respect to Victoria Police’s negligence in failing to keep confidential my assistance and failing in its duty to me as an informer, then the question of which members were involved and who is responsible would be a matter for a Supreme Court judge to consider.
I sincerely hope that I do not have to pursue any of this by way of Supreme Court proceedings; the further damage and stress it would cause me aside, the embarrassment and problems it would create for Victoria Police would be significant.
It has been conveyed to me that it would assist you if I was able to provide details of a ‘‘Top 10’’ kind of list of operations/investigations in which I played a role. It would be unfair and a failure to appreciate the level of my diligence and commitment if that was the only measure by which you assessed my assistance. For that reason, knowing that there are literally thousands of hours of recorded conversations and debriefings as well as many thousands of documents proving without doubt, the immense assistance I provided over a number of years, I am also including some detail as to how and why I began to provide intelligence to Victoria Police and what my assistance included. As I hope you are aware, I helped because I was motivated by altruism rather than for any personal gain.
My actual assistance to Victoria Police began informally via Purana not long after the taskforce was initially formed in 2004. I met as he then was, Detective Sergeant Stuart Bateson on a number of occasions starting in early 2004 which of course was at the height of Melbourne’s gangland war and at a time when the refusal to assist police by anyone involved or with any knowledge was frustrating investigators. What led me to do that was my own frustration with the way in which certain criminals (Carl Williams) were seeking to control what suspects and witnesses could and could not do or say to Police via solicitors who were not in my view, acting in the best interests of their clients because of the undue influence and control of ‘‘heavies’’ such as Williams.
My point is essentially that I was not given any money at all as it seemed to be taken for granted that whatever I had to outlay to spend time with those, whom I informed on, would be borne by me because I was working and had an income. I took no issue with this at the time because Detective Inspector [*Redacted] assured me that this would all be taken into account whenever I finished and made application for a reward. On that note, you should be aware that I was advised by [*Redacted] himself when I spoke to him for the last time in early 2009, that his crew had finished what he referred to as an ‘‘A to Z’’ of the extent of my assistance to Police and that when any reward application was made that report was finalised and ready to be produced. Fortunately for me all those meetings were recorded by Victoria Police lest you be in any doubt as to the veracity of what I am saying I was told.
There were a total of 386 people arrested and charged that I am specifically aware of based upon information I provided to Victoria Police but there are probably more because as you would know, I did not always know the value or use of some of the intelligence that I was providing. There was over $60 million in property and assets seized/restrained based upon my assistance and intelligence (a fact reported in The Age in an article about the results obtained by Purana in decimating the gangland criminals in 2009).
My motivation in assisting Police was not for self-gain but was rather borne from the frustration of being aware of prolific large commercial drug trafficking, importations of massive quantities of drugs, murders, bashings, perverting the course of justice, huge money laundering and other serious offences all being committed without any serious inroads being made by Police. I maintain (despite what I understand from the media to be an incorrect ill-informed view taken by IBAC based upon who knows what version of events), that anything told to me or said in my presence about crimes being planned or committed cannot ever fall under the protection of legal professional privilege by a client. Most significantly, I did not approach the Police because I had committed (nor have I since) any crime for which I required some kind of ‘‘get out of jail free card’’ as is most often the reason people choose to assist Police.
The most significant crimes and/or arrests:
Once again, I am, if necessary, prepared to meet with you to try to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. Again, I would ask you to consider this option seriously because it is in no-one’s best interests for my role and involvement as an informer/human source to be detailed in a Writ or explored in civil proceedings.
- Karam, Higgs, Barbaro and 33 co-accused for the largest ever seizure of ecstasy in the world
- Horty Mokbel, Milad Mokbel and their co-accused and associates such as Stephen Gavanas
- David Ilic
- Joe Mannella (and Karam) for the multiple seizures of hundreds of kilos of cocaine and other drugs that were not the subject of charges but were intercepted and seized by Australian Customs
- Faruk Orman (for the murder of Victor Pierce)
- Mick Gatto and the Carlton crew (regrettably this was a work in progress when I was handed over to Petra as a witness)
- Kamel Khoder [*Redacted], money laundering for various criminals principally the Mokbel family and associates. As a finance broker he obtained fraudulent loans for anyone referred to him; despite his conviction and the confiscation of all his properties he is still committing frauds via false loan applications and deceptions.
I look forward to your earliest reply.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/in-her-own-words-why-a-top-criminal-barrister-became-informer-3838-20181203-p50jug.html
The current narrative doesn't seem adequate somehow.
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My point was its very very obvious who it actually is and imo I'm glad she's no longer practising, she is an absolute disgrace to the legal profession.
