Rats among the ranks
By John Silvester - The Age
November 17, 2007

After six days of Office of Police Integrity public hearings two trusted senior police officials have been exposed, humiliated and discarded while the head of the powerful police union has been left fighting for his career.

The fallout could be long and bloody, with prolonged faction fighting, industrial unrest, protracted legal action and damaged morale.

But the main allegation on the table, and the supposed real reason for open hearings, remains unproven.

The central claim is that a murder taskforce (Operation Briars) investigating suspected police involvement in an organised crime contract killing was nobbled by a sinister chain that began with senior police and ended with a maverick police union boss.

In choosing to hold public hearings, the OPI deliberately chose to launch a campaign of "shock and awe" rather than a strategic strike. The result was plenty of smoke and mirrors — without the smoking gun — and massive collateral damage.

The OPI claims the murder investigation codenamed Operation Briars was deliberately sabotaged — an act of cold-blooded betrayal that if proven would result in an unprecedented corruption scandal and certain jail time for the offenders.

The chain, as alleged within the hearings, is that media director Stephen Linnell improperly passed information on the investigation to assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, who told Police Association secretary Paul Mullett, who passed it to association president Brian Rix. The chain had allegedly ended with the target, Detective Sergeant Peter Lalor.

Linnell and Ashby were the first casualties — both resigning after their damning telephone conversations showed how they lied to private OPI hearings, improperly discussed the hearings, played poisonous internal politics and leaked information.

The head of the police media unit, Inspector Glen Weir (previously Ashby's staff officer), was suspended after it was alleged he discussed the private OPI hearings. Weir was a bit-player but his career is now in doubt.

And the major target — Senior Sergeant Mullett — has been suspended from the police force while maintaining his innocence and holding on to his position as association secretary. For the moment.

All may face criminal charges — not for derailing Briars — but for talking about the hearings, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 12 months' jail. Other charges will be examined, including breaching the Telecommunications Interception Act over discussing possible phone taps, an offence that carries a maximum of two years' jail.

To understand how the claims of a conspiracy to sabotage a murder investigation became public it is necessary to understand the agendas of three complex organisations — the Police Association, the police force and the OPI itself. Then it is necessary to examine how three separate investigations ended up concentrating on the same group of characters.

PAUL Mullett may be the most powerful union boss in Australia — although his workforce does not strike. He has the ear of senior politicians and while he can be a loyal friend, he is an unrelenting enemy.

Both sides of Parliament have duchessed him. He was sounded out to be a Liberal candidate, and former premier Steve Bracks signed a secret deal with Mullett to try to neutralise the association as a political lobby group during last year's state election. When he rings politicians, senior police or top-level bureaucrats he is rarely put on hold.

Mullett believes that Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has improperly used her power behind the scenes to try to unseat him — an allegation she rejects. His response, as it always is when threatened, is to attack — first in public and later in the backroom.

"Fish" Mullett is an old-style detective with two police valour awards who has never shied away from a fight. Those who know him claim he thinks the Marquess of Queensberry rules — you don't just fight to win, you must win by the rules — are for the faint-hearted and the weak-kneed.

Believing Nixon was favouring an anti-Mullett Police Association faction, Mullett contributed to a smear campaign against the union's then president, Sergeant Janet Mitchell.

Mullett called on an old mate from his St Kilda days and associate delegate, Detective Sergeant Peter "Stash" Lalor, to be his hatchet man.

Lalor became "Kit Walker", a notorious emailer who wrote false and defamatory reports on Mitchell that were distributed on the police computer system.

The campaign so enraged the then Police Association executive member, the head of Purana, Detective Inspector Gavan Ryan, that he said: "I've worked homicide for a long time and I've dealt with a lot of crooks, bad crooks. Most of them have more morals than the cowards that send out these malicious, defamatory emails against her."

At the time Lalor was suspected of being just a character assassinator. Later Briars would link him directly to a paid assassin.

During the faction fighting Mullett was on the verge of losing his power base. He started to look for another job, thinking his time was up. And then in May last year his enemy unwittingly handed him a lifeline. Nixon announced she had ordered a bullying inquiry into Mullett, saying she was obligated at law to examine the allegation.

But rather than spear "Fish" Mullett it shored up his position when he cleverly suggested the inquiry was an attack on the independence of the police union rather than a lawful investigation.

While his relationship with Nixon descended into hatred and vitriol he cultivated assistant commissioner Ashby — the man overlooked for the top job in 2001 and who still harboured ambitions to be chief.

Ashby was assigned to deal with Mullett over pay rise negotiations and the two spoke nearly every day. They talked work and gossiped. Ashby passed on information that he thought could damage his main rival, Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland.

But the OPI claims that Ashby did more, that he improperly discussed OPI hearings, warned Mullett his phone could be tapped and leaked information on Operation Briars, including the names of the two targets, Lalor and former detective sergeant David "Docket" Waters.

What is known is that after Ashby told Mullett that his phones were tapped the union boss told Brian Rix to warn Lalor. Mullett says he asked Rix, a former head of the homicide squad, to tell Lalor to "be careful who he talked to".

But he said his warning related to the bullying allegations and the Walker investigations, not Operation Briars.

But within five minutes of Lalor being warned he rang Waters to say they needed to meet. The question that remains unanswered is why he needed to meet Waters urgently when the former policeman did not appear to be involved in the Kit Walker matter.

Before the tip-off Lalor and Waters were taped chirping on their phones regularly. What was also discovered was that both men had wide-ranging contacts within policing although both had questionable reputations. Waters had twice been charged (and acquitted) of serious criminal charges.

The most generous description of Docket in his policing days was that he was a colourful rogue. But once he left policing he began to associate with gangland figures who were the subject of organised crime investigations.

In its latest annual report, OPI director George Brouwer wrote: "Sometimes the most influential member of a (corrupt) group is a former police officer who continues to connect with, and exert influence over, current serving members who are willing to engage in corrupt conduct. Many of these former police resigned from Victoria Police while they were under investigation."

It would appear that through the Briars' phone tapes Mullett was recorded passing on information he received from Ashby. This resulted in the OPI launching another investigation (to run parallel with Briars and the bullying probe) into the leaks.

Then the phones of Ashby and Linnell were tapped and it was quickly established that the media director had inappropriately given the assistant commissioner information on Briars. But there is no suggestion that either wanted to damage the investigation.

Linnell was then set up from within when he was fed information to see if he would leak. He did — within 11 seconds. Counsel assisting the inquiry, Dr Greg Lyon, SC, said it was "flushing dye through the pipes, so to speak".

The Briars investigation was so secret that the taskforce, made up of trusted homicide and ethical standards detectives, was sent to a separate building, away from prying eyes.

The central allegation is that Waters was a friend and drinking buddy of a notorious criminal who had accepted a contract to kill male prostitute Shane Chartres-Abbott.

The hitman claims that Lalor provided the address of the victim and later set up an alibi for the killer. While the hitman is a notorious liar serving a long jail sentence, what has impressed detectives is that he came forward and volunteered the information when he was not a known suspect in the case. They have not been able to find any reason why he would fabricate the allegation.

They have also been able to independently corroborate much of what he has alleged, including that Lalor regularly drank with the hitman at an inner-suburban hotel.

Chartres-Abbott was shot dead outside his home in June 2003 while about to attend the County Court, where his trial on assault charges was continuing.

In September Lalor was suspended although he was not charged. But his career is over. Even if he beats the murder investigation, the Kit Walker allegations and his unjustifiable relationship with the hitman are sackable offences.

And those who had time for "Stash" may look at him in a different light when they learn he was matey with a career criminal who once shot a policeman.

On September 1 he spoke on the phone (knowing it was bugged) saying, "Yeah, they've suspended me with pay for the time being. Overland wanted me charged … and I'm told — well, you don't know whether it's true or not, but it says Ron Iddles is lead — is the lead investigator in this. He and Ron had an argument over the fact that I should have been charged, and the story goes that Ron didn't think there was sufficient evidence at this stage to do that."

The rumour that swept policing (falsely as it would turn out) was that there had been a dispute between Simon Overland and Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles over the handling of the case.

The truth was there had been discussions about charging Lalor but it was decided there was not enough evidence.

The OPI investigations have shown that at the very least both Mullett and Nixon had flawed judgement when it came to confidantes. Nixon appointed Linnell, who was exposed as secretly working as Ashby's unofficial campaign manager as the senior policeman pushed to become the next chief commissioner. Mullett relied on Lalor, whose deep flaws have also been exposed.

The OPI inquiry also exposed that Ashby was jealous of Overland and resented Nixon. The phone taps showed he was prepared to leak damaging material to further his own ambitions.

The fact that Nixon could not rely on all her senior officers was no surprise to her. When appointed for her second term in February 2006 she told The Age she was determined to outlast her enemies in the force who expected her to leave after one term. She said many had already left but "there are a few more who won't outlast me as time goes on".

For the OPI the sensational public hearings have not produced the evidence that the chain of Linnell, Ashby, Mullett to Rix led to the Briars tip-off.

In fact they haven't proved that Lalor was tipped off at all. The alternative theory pushed by Mullett in the hearings was that Lalor went quiet because he thought he was under investigation for the Kit Walker material.

In evidence Mullett was adamant. "I may not be an angel, your honour, but I pride myself as being a police officer who hates crooks … For me to pass on that type of (murder) information, I'm sorry, I would never, ever do it."

So while the OPI failed to prove its original claim, it did expose a culture where mateship and misplaced loyalty was considered more important than sworn duty.

And the use of public hearings has helped deflect the criticism that the body is a toothless tiger.

The next time a young police officer is called to a secret hearing to give evidence before the OPI he or she will know that any attempt to lie is potentially career ending and could be publicly humiliating.

Just ask Noel Ashby.