Face of Nation : A senior policeman has been accused of misleading a court while giving evidence against a convicted drug trafficker who is now appealing his prison sentence.
Inspector Dale Flynn said he “wasn’t deliberately misleading” in giving evidence at Cvetanovski’s committal hearing, but that he’d felt uncomfortable and concerned about revealing the snitching lawyer’s involvement in his case.
Zlate Cvetanovski is trying to overturn his convictions because of claims police use of barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informer may have caused widespread miscarriages of justice. Cvetanovksi was one of four people facing court at the time, after an associate – a client of Ms Gobbo – turned on them.
Cvetanovski has only months remaining on an 11-year prison sentence he hopes the Court of Appeal will overturn. During Cvetanovski’s 2007 committal hearing Insp Flynn was quizzed about past versions of the witness’ signed statement. “This is the one and only version,” Insp Flynn said at the time.
He knew there were previous versions. Ms Gobbo had twice been given printed copies of the statements to review, while other police had also been given copies. But he said on Thursday they didn’t cross his mind in 2007. “When I answered that question I believed there were no drafts in existence,” he said.
He “wasn’t intentionally misleading”, prompting counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke QC, to question if his evidence had been the truth. “Well, I accept that’s what I believed was the whole truth at the time,” he said.
The inquiry was told Insp Flynn had been concerned about exposing Ms Gobbo as an informer, but Mr Winneke asked if it was alarming that Cvetanovski might not get a fair trial on the basis of improperly-obtained evidence.
“Well that’s something I look back now and say ‘yes’, but I don’t think it was a consideration at the time,” Insp Flynn said. “That might be cold comfort to Mr Cvetanovski who has been doing time,” Mr Winneke said.
