Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Paul Dale and Vikki Petraitis, Hachette Australia, $32.99.
“All I can do is humbly ask for you to consider both sides of the story before you make up your mind.” This is the plea from Paul Dale, a former drug squad detective, who found himself entangled in the biggest scandal in the history of Victoria Police.
One question reverberates. “How did a kid from the country who dreamed of joining the Victoria Police, end up on the wrong side of the bars? There are a lot of reasons, and I hope this story will help clarify some of them, not only for you, the reader, but for me too, because a lot of the time I am left shaking my head, wondering how things went so wrong.”
Dale knows he carries a stigma. After almost 15 years as a cop, working in Homicide and rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant in the Victorian Drug Squad, he saw the worst of what people can do. However, when he was accused and jailed firstly for drug offences and then for murder, Dale realised the murky world he was navigating was going to take him under too.
Dale dealt with criminals like Carl Williams, Terry Hodson and Tommy Ivanovic on the Melbourne streets. When a burglary ended in Hodson’s arrest, Dale’s life started to unravel. He turned to Nicola Gobbo, a lawyer and friend he thought could help: the lawyer who became known as Lawyer X.
Eventually exonerated of any crimes, Dale’s story reveals the shocking deals done at the highest levels of the Victorian Police Force and the damage wrought by Victoria Police’s use of Lawyer X.
You decide: “if it is a house of cards or a line of dominoes – bump out one and the rest fall down”.
