A murdered gangland lawyer, court clerk and legal secretary are among numerous questionable informants for Victoria Police, a royal commission into the 'Lawyer X' scandal has revealed.
Eight people, including Lawyer X, either gave police information or were considered as possible informants, when they may have held legal obligations of confidentiality or privilege.
The criminal defence barrister whose conduct sparked the scandal is co-operating with the commission and will almost certainly give evidence, either voluntarily or by compulsion.
Opening the inquiry on Friday, royal commissioner Margaret McMurdo revealed a dead lawyer had also acted as an informant for police.
Ms McMurdo said police told the corruption watchdog IBAC that "another lawyer now deceased, had previously provided information to Victoria Police".
"Police stated that the deceased police informant referred to in the IBAC material was a practising lawyer but declined to provide any further information as 'this matter is the subject of an ongoing homicide investigation'," Ms McMurdo said.
The royal commission did not name any of the informers, but media reported the deceased police informant was slain Melbourne gangland lawyer Joe Acquaro.
Mr Acquaro, who was gunned down outside a cafe in March 2016, represented a raft of prominent gangland figures in Victoria.
A man was charged in November with the 54-year-old's murder.
It has not been revealed when the dead lawyer acted as an informant or for how long.
Excluding Lawyer X and the dead lawyer, Victoria Police only identified one of the six remaining people as posing a risk of breaching legal professional privilege or confidence.
That person was a solicitor who met with police in April 2014 and was listed as a 'community contact', but was not approved as a police informant because of "the risks posed by his profession".
"This person did not provide information about clients and agreed with police 'that there could be no conflict of interest'," Ms McMurdo said.
A court clerk with "access to information by virtue of their role" was a registered informer in 2015 and 2016.
"Police considered this person 'was unable to provide substantial intelligence' and 'unreliable and too risky to be used' as a police informant 'long term' because of the person's role," Ms McMurdo said.
Someone who was either a court clerk or a legal secretary was a registered informer for years, while another legal secretary was briefly a community contact.
A former solicitor and "self-proclaimed legal adviser" were also considered but never registered as informants.
Ms McMurdo said the commission will examine the extra information about the informers police provided, as well as whether there are further informants with legal obligations of confidence or privilege.
The royal commission will examine hundreds of thousands of documents as it tries to identify which of the hundreds of cases involving Lawyer X were affected by her being a police informant from 1995 until 2009.
Ms McMurdo said if individuals wanted to challenge their convictions or sentences, they must do so in the courts.
"This commission has no judicial power. It is not empowered to quash convictions, change sentences or order retrials," she said.
Australian Associated Press
