'She will almost certainly be killed': How top female lawyer who played police informer in some of Australia's most notorious criminal cases is refusing to go into police protection
- Police informer refused police protection at own peril, Queen's Council warned
- Peter Faris QC said police assessment found protection crucial for informant
- Informer 3838 passed on sensitive information of gang clients to Victoria Police
- The information led to convictions and influenced Melbourne's gangland war
- Victoria government has announced it will launch a Royal Commmission
- New Attorney General confirmed two commissioners outside VIC would lead it
A top female lawyer who fed police sensitive information about some of the underworld's biggest crime bosses has refused to go into police protection.
National Crime Authority former chairman Peter Faris QC, warned the police informer, known as Informer 3838, has put her life in danger as a result.
'Police have assessed it as being almost certain that she will be killed unless she goes into witness protection, which she has refused to do,' he said.
National Crime Authority former chairman Peter Faris QC (pictured), warned the police informer, Informer 3838, has put her life in danger as a result
New Attorney-General Jill Hennessy (pictured) on Tuesday confirmed the state government is looking outside Victoria to find two people to run the inquiry, so they do not have personal connections with people involved
Informer 3838 worked as a defence lawyer for Melbourne's crime figures and passed on sensitive information about them to Victoria Police.
The details not only helped to rein in crime kingpins like Tony Mokbel, but also tilted the gangland wars in Melbourne to the police's favour.
The Victorian Government has since announced it will launch a Royal Commission and see just how deep Informer 3838's involvement goes in the underworld.
New Attorney-General Jill Hennessy on Tuesday confirmed the state government is looking outside Victoria to find two people to run the inquiry, so they do not have personal connections with people involved.
'We're currently engaged in conversations with people outside the state of Victoria to be able to come and to be able to adjudicate,' she told ABC Melbourne.
'Bringing fresh eyes from interstate is certainly our objective.'
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Ms Hennessy said the government was looking at two commissioners for the $7.5 million inquiry to get through the workload quickly.
Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and now-Supreme Court justices might have to give evidence, Ms Hennessy said.
'This is a very awkward and frustrating set of circumstances we find ourselves in,' she said.
The lawyer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, represented many clients linked to Victoria's violent gangland era and the Director of Public Prosecutions has already written to 20 people about their convictions.
More cases dating from 2005 to 2009, when she acted as an informant, are being assessed.
The High Court labelled Victoria Police's conduct in managing the informer as 'reprehensible' and said every corrupted conviction will have to be re-examined.
Former homicide squad detective Ron Iddles said he raised doubts about what was happening nine years ago but many police turned a blind eye.
'There would have been maybe 10 to 15 very senior police who knew what was happening,' he told radio 3AW.
The Victorian Government has since announced it will launch a Royal Commission and see just how deep Informer 3838's involvement goes in the underworld
Informer 3838 worked as a defence lawyer for Melbourne's crime figures such as Tony Mokbel (pictured) and passed on sensitive information about them to Victoria Police
'They walked past the behaviour but still accepted it.'
Mr Faris represented drug lord Tony Mokbel after the supergrass lawyer did.
'If anyone had've told me she was a registered police informer, I would've said they were crazy, unbelievable for that to be the case,' he told ABC radio.
'It's absolutely unprecedented as far as I can see that a busy practising criminal lawyer is at the same time a registered police informer.'
Mr Faris said despite the gangland era being a bloody time in Melbourne's history, 'the ends do not justify the means'.
'This isn't Nazi Germany where the police can walk in, take someone off the street and shoot them,' he said.
'People, no mater how good or how bad they are are entitled to due process of the law and part of that due process is they can have the confidence in their lawyer anything they say will be confidential.'
Mr Faris said it's impossible to predict whether Mokbel and other serious criminals will be released.
He also said Mr Ashton should step aside.
'Absolutely. He was involved in this and he's got to stand down,' he said.
Mr Ashton said he was certain all officers linked to the informant acted in good faith.
The Victorian Government has since announced it will launch a Royal Commission and see just how deep Informer 3838's involvement goes in the underworld
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