Cops scandal widens

Tassie link as allegations against Victoria police grow

LAWYER X warned Carl Williams he should flee overseas as he was about to face murder charges, but wife Roberta persuaded him to stay.

She says that in 2004, after a meeting with Lawyer X, Williams told her the lawyer had “said that I should f... off overseas”. He then said: “I’m going to get pinched. What should I stay here for?”

But Roberta Williams, who says she had then been unaware of the extent of his criminality, talked him out of absconding.

Williams was ultimately bashed to death with an exercise bike stem in Barwon jail, where he was serving a 35-year sentence for four murders.

The Williams claim is among details that emerged about Victoria Police’s use of a gangland lawyer, Lawyer X, as an informant.

Lawyer X represented numerous high-profile figures, including drug lord Tony Mokbel.

Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions has already written to 20 people about their convictions - and more cases dating from 2005 to 2009, when Lawyer X acted as an informant, are being assessed.

It could open the door for criminals to appeal their convictions.

It can also be revealed: VICTORIA Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton sat on two steering committees in which Lawyer X was used in stings and knew she was an informer, but was not aware she was informing on her clients. LAWYER X’s police handlers raised concerns with their bosses about the legality of using her, but were ordered to push ahead. ONE police source has said of the Lawyer X operation: “Were we pushing the boundaries? You f...ing betcha we were!” SENIOR legal figures will be questioned over their knowledge of Victoria Police’s use of Lawyer X. THE Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office is alleged to have known of and advised police about their use of Lawyer X.

Insiders say the manage- ment team led by former top cop Simon Overland was a “steering committee without a steering wheel”.

Sources say that senior police knew the Lawyer X scheme was “pushing the envelope”, adding that “Overland drove it”.

“Their ambition got in the way of making sound investigative decisions. There were moments when we should have disengaged, but we didn’t because we weren’t allowed to,” one says.

“There were a number of times when we would think, wow, is this a conspiracy to pervert? We would go and get advice. It was all covered.”

Mr Overland — who headed Tasmania’s Department of Justice until last year after resigning as Victorian police chief in 2011 — regularly briefed on the activities of Lawyer X, but only referred to her as Informer 3838, and didn’t reveal her true identity, one senior police officer said.

Sources say this supports the view that Mr Overland, as assistant commissioner for crime, took the unusual decision for such a senior commander to have a hands-on role in managing Lawyer X.

It can also be revealed Tony Mokbel was “elated” after it was announced on Monday that letters would be sent to 20 criminals, including himself, alerting them that police use of Lawyer X as a secret informer could have undermined their convictions, prompting the Andrews Government to launch a royal commission.

Mokbel was jailed for years for drug trafficking. 22