Lawyer suss at ‘phone tap’ before flight
A GOLD Coast criminal lawyer who fears police phone taps believes it resulted in him being bumped off a critical flight interstate to see a client.
Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied principal Campbell MacCallum suspects a phone call from a client who wanted him to immediately fly out to meet him was compromised.
In yesterday’s Bulletin Mr MacCallum and fellow defence lawyer Jason Murakami claimed widespread phone tapping led them to only have face-to-face client meetings on substantive matters.
Mr MacCallum reveals a plane “cancellation” out of Gold Coast Airport was never adequately explained and has never sat right with him.
“I have had a plane flight mysteriously cancelled as I hurriedly sought to meet a client to discuss his options on entering into a record of interview,” Mr MacCallum claimed.
“That was a discussion on mobiles. Mysteriously police got on the so-called ‘cancelled flight’ and obtained a full confession. The flight cancellation was never explained adequately and in fact had taken off. I was left behind,” he said.
Asked to explain further, Mr MacCallum told the Bulletin: “I turned up at the airport to check in, I was advised to speak to a supervisor – someone who purported to be a supervisor – and I was told the flight was cancelled.”
Mr MacCallum said he only managed he speak to his client hours later: “He said he’d just been sat down for a four-hour interview and ‘Spilt my balls’. No lawyer. I’ve no doubt in my mind that’s what cracked the case. They had no evidence, it was a dead-end, 12-month investigation.”
Asked about fears of phone tapping held by defence lawyers, a Queensland Police Service spokesman told the Bulletin earlier this week that “defence lawyers should be well aware there are specific legislative protections for privileged conversations”.
The phone tap fears have emerged after revelations Victoria Police deployed a female gangland lawyer, dubbed Lawyer X, to act as an informant against her own clients. A Royal Commission into Lawyer X is scheduled next year.