"Evil, corrupt and dishonest" is how turncoat lawyer Nicola Gobbo describes former Victoria Police boss Simon Overland.
The woman who sparked Victoria's Lawyer X royal commission has unloaded on the former chief commissioner during a recorded phone call about the scandal.
When asked to describe what she thought of Mr Overland's conduct, Ms Gobbo replied "evil, corrupt and dishonest".
She told the commission she had never met the former police boss who also set up the force's gangland-busting Purana task force, but said he knew about her informing.
"Can you descend to a little bit more detail?" counsel assisting Chris Winneke QC asked Mr Gobbo during the conversation in March, the transcript of which was released on Monday.
"I was always led to believe that he was well aware of my informing and that he was a huge supporter and encourager of it," Ms Gobbo replied.
"There were often circumstances in which I was - would say to my handler, whichever handler I was with at the time ... 'Are you sure, are you sure you know what you're doing'?'
"And each and every time they would say to me that their bosses had approved of it and ... Simon Overland was specifically aware of what I was doing and that he had approved of it."
Mr Overland has accepted limited responsibility for the Lawyer X scandal, which he described as an "irregularity in police procedures".
The royal commission is looking at how Ms Gobbo came to give police information on her criminal clients.
She was registered three times as a police informer between 1995 and 2009, with police continuing to chase intel from her until 2012.
However Ms Gobbo said she had no idea she was registered as a human source in 1995.
"I was doing my last year of my law degree and I was working at the MCG," she said.
When Ms Gobbo started her double life, she said she thought it would be temporary but "they (police) kept coming up with new people and targets".
At one point, one senior handler known by the pseudonym "Sandy White" told her: "People like you end up in one of two places, in gaol or the gutter. So you may as well help us".
Transcripts of Ms Gobbo's phone conversations with the commission have been released ahead of a looming deadline for her to give evidence in real-time.
She has been ordered to do so via phone from January 29, but Commissioner Margaret McMurdo has she said does not expect Ms Gobbo to follow through.
No one can force Ms Gobbo to talk, but the commission can recommend criminal charges against her for failing to comply with an order.
The inquiry is due to resume on January 21.
© AAP 2024
