Nicola Gobbo was prepared to plead guilty to perverting the course of justice and testify against Victorian police officers including a senior figure in the gang-busting Purana taskforce over their involvement in a “joint criminal enterprise.”
Credit:Nettle, the special investigator appointed two years ago to build criminal cases against current and former police implicated by the McMurdo royal commission into the Gobbo scandal, declared his task had become “a waste of people’s time and scarce economic resources” and his office should be wound up.
In Judd’s response to Nettle, the DPP questioned the passage of time since the alleged offences, the credibility of Gobbo as a witness and the public interest in prosecuting police in circumstances where they would be able to present a “good faith defence.”“In light of what we know from evidence given at the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, in any prosecution of current or former members of Victoria Police, a likely defence case theory is clear,” Judd wrote to Nettle.
“I was appointed special prosecutor and given full discretion to investigate and decide whether or not to prosecute. It is difficult to see why the special investigator was not trusted with the power to prosecute,” Drummond said. Nettle met with Symes on Wednesday to discuss the impasse. When contacted, the retired judge said he could not comment beyond the contents of his special report to parliament until a decision had been made on whether to wind up or continue the OSI.
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