CFMEU official charged with threatening to kill seeks to call ex-police chief as witness

Embattled CFMEU official Joel Shackleton is pushing to subpoena a former police chief commissioner to give evidence in his criminal case but says he is facing resistance from the force in tracking down the ex-chief to serve him papers.

Defence lawyer Lee Ristivojevic told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday that Victoria Police’s subpoena support department had refused to contact former chief commissioner Shane Patton, who was the state’s most senior police officer from June 2020 until February 2025.

Ristivojevic said that at the time of her client’s alleged offending – which includes an accusation of threatening to kill the owners of an Indigenous labour hire company – Patton was chief commissioner and “actively involved” in the case. Victoria Police, she said, had failed to disclose details of his involvement or any notes he may have held.

“We intend to pursue Mr Patton as a witness for the defence. We’re obviously not getting co-operation from the current chief commissioner [to enable this],” Ristivojevic said.

“It’s very unusual, your honour. We’re trying to troubleshoot the stonewalling and lack of assistance from the current chief commissioner to serve a summons on a former chief commissioner.”

Ristivojevic said she had been involved in other unrelated cases, including the defence of underworld identity Tony Mokbel, in which she had received no resistance from Victoria Police in helping contact former chief commissioners Simon Overland and Christine Nixon to give evidence.

In this case, she said it appeared the defence lawyers might have to try to track down the former senior officer themselves.

“Why Mr Shackleton’s case is being treated differently, I’m not sure,” she said.

Crown prosecutor Melissa Mahady confirmed the police’s subpoena management unit would not help to track down Patton. Mahady said there was nothing to suggest Patton had any relevance to Shackleton’s case.

The court earlier heard Shackleton allegedly abused a man on a taxpayer-funded Big Build project run by civil contractor CPB in 2022.

Shackleton was charged over the incident in September, with police alleging he threatened the owners of an Indigenous labour hire company, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

They were the first criminal charges laid after the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, which revealed allegations of violent threats, intimidation and underworld infiltration of the construction union.

Magistrate Fiona Hayes ordered the matter return to court in April.

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