Plot to overthrow Australia’s first woman Chief Commissioner of Police Christine Nixon.

In the centre of the police scandal are claims of backroom deals and a plot to overthrow Australia’s first woman Chief Commissioner of Police Christine Nixon.
These are the damning disclosures from the report of the Office of Police Integrity (OPI), which was tabled in the Victorian Parliament last week. The report caused shockwaves throughout the nation as Assistant Police Commissioner Noel Ashby resigned, preceded by the police media chief Stephen Linnell, whose alleged lies were exposed by the secret recordings of his series of telephone conversations with Ashby. The report also lists numerous police scandals that prompted further calls for a royal commission or an anti-corruption inquiry with wider powers to investigate beyond the police force. The most serious allegation, of course, is the circumstances of the leaking of information to Detective Sergeant Peter Lalor, who was under surveillance for his alleged involvement in the murder of the so-called vampire. Linnell was alleged to have leaked the information about the surveillance to Ashby, who then spoke to police association secretary Paul Mullet, who allegedly passed on the information to his association president Brian Rix who, in turn, allegedly told Lalor. Mullet denied the allegation and insisted that the information he had passed on for Lalor concerned an Internet e-mail campaign in which Lalor used the pseudonym “Kit Walker”. “Mr Ashby did not tell me about any targets and murder and Lalor,” he said categorically. “Neither did I try to induce that from him. And neither did I pass information on that to Mr Rix to go through to Mr Lalor, and I’m very strong on that because I may not be an angel ... (but) I pride myself on being a police officer who hates crooks.” The OPI report, however, names Ashby and Mullet whose “personal ambitions led them to work towards destabilising and undermining” other senior police officers. It adds: “... the end goals of this alliance were to install Mr Ashby as (Chief) Commissioner and to provide Mr Mullet with a puppet commissioner ... even the prospect of compromising a murder investigation appears to have had secondary consideration.” An excerpt of a taped telephone conversation played at the OPI hearing earlier quotes Ashby telling Linnell about his dealing with Mullet. I’m sick of dealing with him,” Ashby was alleged to have said. “He’s like ... when I was thinking about it, I thought, dealing with this c*** is like dealing with a criminal informer. It’s difficult and smelly.”
Oddly nicknamed “Fish”, Mullet was described in the report as a “forceful, even intimidating person” who rose through the ranks of major crime and armed robbery units to become one of only two Victorian policemen to be awarded with two Valour Medals. After becoming Police Association secretary in 1991, he declared he would not be bullied by the commissioner. Mullet has been suspended from the police force on full pay. He is now challenging that suspension in the Federal Court. Nonetheless, the report recommends that Mullet be charged with, among other offences, attempting to pervert the course of justice. Linnell, described as “one of a willing and gullible supporting cast”, and Ashby, who joined the police force at 16 and rose through the ranks, face a number of charges, including misconduct in public office and perjury. Ashby insists that he has never had an allegation put to him that affects his integrity, but Commissioner Nixon says that Ashby has always been an ambitious man. “Perhaps I should have done something about that, but ambition is not an offence,” she declares, showing her disappointment at what she describes is Ashby’s “betrayal”. The matter has now been referred to the Public Prosecutor who is considering the charges, which carry jail terms up to 25 years.

Posted in: Victoria Police