Ms Judd alleges Victoria Police failed to disclose to judges in three separate trials, including one before the full bench of the High Court, that Ms Gobbo had been registered as an informer in 1999. This was six years earlier than the force had repeatedly claimed in sworn evidence. “The Chief Commissioner's [Graham Ashton’s] written submissions to the High Court summarised events relating to Ms Gobbo between 1996 and 2001. That summary made no reference to any earlier registration of her as a source,” Ms Judd said. “The Chief Commissioner of Police also made objections to evidence on the express premise that Ms Gobbo was not registered as a human source until September 2005, so that evidence that pre-dated that time was therefore 'irrelevant to the current proceeding' and so ought not to be produced to the parties to those proceedings or to the court." The allegation that the judiciary was kept in the dark raises questions about the conduct of a number of senior police and public servants involved in managing the litigation, which ran between 2016 and 2018 in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court.

The case was overseen by a police operation known as the “Bendigo Steering Committee”, which was chaired by Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton and included assistant commissioners Neil Paterson and Stephen Fontana, and director of legal services Findlay McRae, among other senior personnel. Mr Patton and Mr Paterson are considered strong contenders to replace Graham Ashton as chief commissioner of police when his term ends in July. After the launch of the royal commission in December 2018, Victoria Police belatedly admitted Ms Gobbo had previously worked as a registered informer on two significantly earlier occasions, 1995 and 1999 — revelations that forced the state government to dramatically expand its terms of reference. Ms Gobbo became a solicitor in 1996 and barrister in 1998, meaning the number of criminal cases she potentially contaminated was substantially larger. Ms Gobbo, herself, has claimed to have facilitated about 386 arrests and convictions. Evidence since produced to the royal commission shows Ms Gobbo also provided information informally as an unregistered informer for federal and Victorian law enforcement agencies at other points in her career.

A spokeswoman for the royal commission said Victoria Police’s handling of the disclosure of the 1995 and 1999 registrations to the courts was under investigation. “During hearings the commission has, and still is, exploring why these registrations were not disclosed during the Victoria Police & Ms Gobbo v DPP matter,” a commission spokeswoman told The Age. A Victoria Police spokesman has declined to comment on its conduct during the court cases. “Whether or not the 1999 registration was relevant to the (court proceedings) is likely to be a matter considered at the royal commission, and as such it would be inappropriate for Victoria Police to comment,” he said. But an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission report into the Gobbo scandal by Murray Kellam, QC, indicates senior ranks in the force were aware from at least February 2015.

In her statement, Ms Judd provides multiple instances where Victoria Police allegedly failed to disclose Ms Gobbo’s 1999 registration to the court, provided allegedly misleading statements about her involvement with police, or “made no attempt to correct the record of facts” to the courts since the case began in 2016. Among them are a sworn affidavit by Mr Fontana that said Ms Gobbo’s work as a registered informer was limited to the period from September 2005 to January 2009. “Mr Fontana made no reference to Ms Gobbo's earlier registration as a registered police informer,” she wrote. Ms Judd has also challenged testimony delivered last year, before the royal commission, by the assistant commissioner Mr Paterson, in which he said Ms Gobbo’s 1999 registration was “well known” amongst all those involved in the court case because of a reference to it in an annexure to IBAC’s Kellam Report. Known as “Annexure B”, it contains a list of documents used in the IBAC inquiry, including a reference to an “Informer registration application — 13 May 1999”. “His Honour [Justice Timothy Ginnane] was possessed of the Kellam report as well. I just don't think it was the focus of the, of what the proceedings were about,” Mr Paterson testified in March 2019.

“So the 1999 period, despite being available in the materials, wasn't part of what was being considered by the court is my view.” Loading In her statement, Ms Judd labelled his account “incorrect” and “inconsistent”, saying that the Office of Public Prosecutions had no knowledge of her 1999 registration during the court case and was only notified of its existence by a letter from Victoria Police in 2019. It also remains unclear whether the section of the Kellam report containing the reference to Ms Gobbo’s 1999 registration was tendered to the court by Victoria Police. Justice Ginnane made no reference to it or the 1999 registration in his decision. The Age could not locate a copy of Annexure B in Supreme Court files, although some materials used in the case remain secret. Victoria Police declined to comment on whether the annexure was part of the materials submitted to Justice Ginnane.

In her statement, Ms Judd claimed Victoria Police’s conduct led Justice Ginnane to make a “finding of fact” that Ms Gobbo had been registered only in 2005, which stood unchallenged all the way to the High Court of Australia. Loading “That finding was made on an implied, but obvious, premise that Ms Gobbo’s registration in 2005 was her first registration,” she wrote. “The Chief Commissioner made no attempt to correct the record of facts before the High Court so as to make clear to the Court that Ms Gobbo had, in fact, been formally registered prior to 2005.” The royal commission is also investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Ms Gobbo’s 1995 registration as a police informer in June 2018, which was also not disclosed to the High Court or the Andrews government before it launched the royal commission in December 2018.

The Office of Public Prosecutions was contacted on February 5 but declined to comment. On Monday, Ms Judd issued a media statement calling The Age story a "mischaracterisation" of her position. "At no time did I accuse senior police, including Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, of misleading the High Court and Supreme Court," she said. "Both myself and the Office of Public Prosecutions continue to enjoy a strong and close working relationship with Victoria Police." Victoria Police and the DPP spent more than $6.3 million fighting court battles from 2016 to 2018 over whether Ms Gobbo's work a secret police informer should be made public.