Paul Dale said his cosy relationship with a gangland killer was all part of his endeavour to become a top-notch detective. A jury believed him.
The former Victorian detective has been acquitted of allegations he lied about a secret corrupt relationship he had with Carl Williams.
After two days of deliberations, a Victorian Supreme Court jury found him not guilty of 12 charges of giving false evidence at two Australian Crime Commission examinations about his dealings with the crime boss.
Jurors believed Mr Dale's defence that he had a professional relationship with Williams, as part of his efforts to be a top-notch detective.
He had not lied to the ACC, but had an appalling memory and was unable to recall even innocuous details at the hearings, defence barrister Geoffrey Steward said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Mr Steward told the jury the case against Mr Dale was based on evidence by "murderers, drug traffickers, perjurers" and despicable people who were offered incentives and immunities.
Prosecutors alleged he lied because he knew he was a suspect in the murders of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine.
Hodson had been due to give evidence against Mr Dale in relation to burglary and drug charges, which were dropped after Hodson's death in May 2004.
In 2009, Mr Dale was charged with commissioning the murder of Terry Hodson but the charge was withdrawn the following year, one month after Williams was murdered in jail.
Mr Dale's trial heard Williams had agreed to give sworn evidence about the Hodson murders and other matters in return for immunities and incentives.
Williams had asked for an indemnity from prosecution in all of those matters, to be entitled to make a claim for a $1 million reward being offered by the Victorian government for information about the Hodson murders, and for his father's $750,000 tax bill to be resolved, the jury heard.
Williams also wanted an undertaking that the crown would not oppose his appeal for a lesser sentence when it came before the court.
Crown prosecutor Christopher Beale SC said Mr Dale was lying when he told the ACC in 2007 and 2008 that he had met Williams only two or three times for work purposes.
He alleged Mr Dale lied when he said he had never received money from Williams in return for police information during the height of the gangland war.
Mr Beale said Mr Dale's claims that he could not remember were exposed as lies by secretly recorded conversations Mr Dale had with Williams' barrister Nicola Gobbo.
"Good cop, bad memory? Or bad cop, good liar?" he put to the jury.
But Mr Steward described Ms Gobbo as a "baroness of treachery", saying she had been Mr Dale's friend, confidante and lover before she approached police about secretly recording him and tried to coax him into making admissions.
He said if Mr Dale had lied to the ACC, he would have admitted it to Ms Gobbo, but he never did.
During Mr Dale's ACC interviews, he denied ever seeking a contract to kill someone through Hodson and denied any involvement in the Hodson murders.
Mr Dale smiled at his mother and his wife Ditty as he walked out of the dock on Thursday night.
All three broke down as he threw his arms around them.
Outside court, Mr Steward said Mr Dale was "very relieved and very happy to go before a jury".
Mr Dale did not speak to waiting media outside court, though he did help a cameraman who fell to the ground amid the media scrum.
"You'll be right mate," he said as he picked the man up.
