Authorities have abandoned the prosecution of the man accused of the murder of Melbourne gangland lawyer Joseph “Pino” Acquaro.
A spokesperson for the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) said a notice discontinuing the murder charge against tradesman Vincenzo Crupi was filed with the state’s Supreme Court on Friday morning.
The OPP did not provide reasons for the decision, but said it followed a review by a committee headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Kissane.
It comes after Victoria Police last year won a High Court battle to protect the identity of an informer in the case, overruling the Supreme Court and causing the court battle to be delayed indefinitely.
Mr Acquaro was shot dead outside Gelobar, the gelato shop he owned on Lygon St in East Brunswick, in March 2016.
As a lawyer, he had represented many members of the Melbourne underworld, including Mafia members.
He was also rumoured to be a police informant.
Police charged the 75-year-old Mr Crupi with Mr Acquaro’s murder in November 2018.
But the court case became bogged down due to COVID and the fight over whether disclosing documents sought by the defence could put at risk a police informant dubbed "Informer Z".
In November 2022, Supreme Court judge Christopher Beale found that there was good reason to think that the information in the hundreds of pages of documents "is likely to be of substantial assistance to the defence in the conduct of their case".
But last September, the High Court found that Justice Beale’s reasons for making the decision were inadequate and disclosing the material "would enable the identity of Informer Z to be ascertained and would therefore give rise to a real threat to his or her safety".
It sent the case back to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, the OPP's spokesperson said Mr Acquaro's family had been informed of the decision to drop the murder case.
"Every prosecution must have reasonable prospects of conviction and be in the public interest," the spokesperson said.
"This decision followed very careful consideration of the case with respect to these criteria and, as with all matters involving a death, was not arrived at lightly."
Lawyers for Mr Crupi have been contacted for comment.
