Former top police officer resigns after discovery that gangland barrister became informant 10 years earlier than was first reported

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Victoria’s “Lawyer X” scandal is ballooning, with a former top police officer quitting as a royal commissioner amid revelations that the gangland barrister was on the force’s books as an informant for a decade longer than initially reported.

The lawyer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, dished the dirt on her clients to help police secure convictions, in a possible breach of confidentiality which has thrown into doubt the sentences of gangland figures including the drug lord Tony Mokbel.

A royal commission into the matter will now have its terms of reference amended to account for new information that the lawyer was first recruited in 1995, the state’s attorney general, Jill Hennessy, said on Wednesday.

Gangsters, cops and Lawyer X: the police informant scandal that has shocked Australia Read more

“When the royal commission was established, it was understood that the informant was first registered with Victoria police in 2005,” she said. “Further, and as a result of this disclosure, I have been advised that Malcolm Hyde has resigned as commissioner.

“This is due to the potential for overlap between the matters of interest and Mr Hyde’s time at Victoria police.”

Hyde joined Victoria police in 1967 and rose through the ranks, appointed as a deputy commissioner in 1994 before being made South Australian police commissioner in 1997. He retired in 2012.

He was named in December as one of two commissioners for the Lawyer X royal commission, along with a former president of the Queensland court of appeal, Margaret McMurdo.

Hennessy played down Hyde’s departure. “While Mr Hyde has indicated that he is satisfied there are no direct conflicts of interest, I understand that Mr Hyde has made this decision to remove any adverse perceptions about the royal commission’s impartiality.”

McMurdo will conduct the upcoming royal commission alone.