Barbaro fury at Lawyer X drug scandal
A GOLD Coast member of the Barbaro crime family has expressed fury via his lawyer at Victorian police using a criminal barrister as an informant to potentially put his uncle in jail.
Pasquale ‘Pat’ Barbaro was jailed for life in 2012 for orchestrating a world record importation of $122 million worth of ecstasy in tomato tins.
The safety of his conviction is among those being questioned amid revelations police deployed a female gangland lawyer – dubbed Lawyer X – to inform on clients. Clients included gangland kingpin Carl Williams, later killed in prison.
A Royal Commission will probe the scandal next year with speculation crime figures such as Tony Mokbel and Rob Karam serving decades for drug crimes could walk free.
Gold Coast’s Harley Barbaro, a nephew of Pat Barbaro, wouldn’t talk to the Bulletin directly but lawyer Campbell MacCallum said his client was stunned by the developments.
Mr MacCallum, representing Harley Barbaro in a bid to challenge Queensland’s new anti-consorting laws, said the Lawyer X scandal had raised his client’s eyebrows.
“I sat this week with him going through a 2000-page brief for the matter we have coming up and he tongue-incheek said ‘Don’t worry bro, we had you screened years ago’.
“On a more serious note, he was furious and concerned at the concept of a lawyer and the police service being in collusion to bring someone down.
“As Harley describes ‘Who the f--- can we trust if we can’t trust our lawyer?’
“He has seen many family members in and out of jail,” Mr MacCallum said. “He has a dim view of informants and said the thought of lawyers in collusion with police makes him sick to the stomach.”
Mr MacCallum said a trial to hear Mr Barbaro’s anti-consorting case was set for three days in February in Southport.
Police allege he contacted “recognised offenders” despite being warned twice not to, an offence known as habitually consorting.
Mr MacCallum is among defence lawyers expecting to be in demand as the Lawyer X scandal unfolds with years of hearings and retrials tipped.
A damning High Court judgment this week condemned Lawyer X’s actions: “... purporting to act as counsel for the convicted persons while covertly informing against them were fundamental and appalling breaches of Lawyer X’s obligations.”
Police were guilty of “reprehensible” conduct for her to do so, High Court judgment said.
Melbourne Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton has said police involved acted in good faith at a “desperate and dangerous time”. during that city’s bloody gangland war. encouraging the