Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton requested to provide evidence in CFMEU case
Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton has been served with two subpoenas to provide evidence in the criminal case of CFMEU official Joel Shackleton, who is accused of threatening to kill the owners of an Indigenous labor hire company.
Defense lawyer Lee Ristivojevic told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday that Patton had recently been served with subpoenas to determine whether he was involved in his client’s investigation and charge.
But solicitor Andrew Imrie, acting for Patton, said his client did not have his work diaries and had no documents to produce in response to subpoenas.
Imrie said Patton would be willing to make a statement on his return from an overseas holiday on Thursday, but it was unclear what evidence the former superintendent might present in Shackleton’s case.
“Chief Superintendents are always briefing on events,” Imrie told the court.
Solicitor Ashleigh Harrold, acting for Victoria Police, said police would also comply with subpoenas from Shackleton’s defense team.
Ristivojevic had previously told the court that Victoria Police’s subpoena support department refused to contact Patton, who was the state’s most senior police officer, from June 2020 to February 2025.
“We plan to pursue Mr. Patton as a defense witness. It is clear that we are not getting cooperation from the current superintendent.” [to enable this]Ristivojevic said on January 27.
“This is a very unusual situation, Your Honor. We are trying to address the current superintendent’s lack of assistance and stonewalling on a former superintendent’s subpoena.”
The court previously heard Shackleton allegedly abused a man at the taxpayer-funded Big Build project, run by building contractor CPB, in 2022.
Shackleton was charged over the incident in September, and police alleged that Shackleton had threatened the owners of the Indigenous labor hire company; This crime was a crime punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Shackleton was charged with four offenses for allegedly making threats in Berwick on March 16, 2022.
These were the first criminal complaints filed by this imprint after the Building Bad investigation. Australian Financial Review And 60 MinutesRevealing allegations of violent threats, intimidation and underworld infiltration of the construction union.
The case will return to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on June 2.
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