Lawyer X doco series: Who the key players are from Melbourne’s gangland war
The new Lawyer X doco series delves into Nicola Gobbo’s story which is enmeshed in the Melbourne gang wars — and could have ramifications well beyond state borders.
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Lawyer X is the missing piece in the puzzle behind Australia’s worst gangland war — a conflict that between 1995 and 2009 saw the murders of 36 criminal identities and the jailing of dozens.
Carl Williams, Jason Moran, Pasquale Barbaro, Tony Mokbel became household names during this infamous underworld era and heroes were made from the ranks of the police who carried out one of the nation’s most successful and sustained crime-fighting operations.
But it was Lawyer X, sensationally unmasked in March this year as former defence barrister Nicola Gobbo, who secretly sat at the centre of this extraordinary period in criminal history, playing the role of both good cop and bad cop in a dual role that now threatens the criminal justice system in Victoria.
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Her story is enmeshed in the Melbourne gang wars so well known across all Australia, and could have ramifications well beyond state borders.
Gobbo was representing some of the country’s most notorious crime figures in court but was secretly a registered police informant helping authorities put her own clients and others behind bars. Indeed, some of her information to police led to the arrest and charging of criminal figures that would later hire her to get them off. She was even coached by police handlers on how to convince junior criminals into turning on their masters — and was given three informant identities by police, one for each period she was registered, including Informant 3838.
For 15 years from 1995, when she was finishing her law studies, she played both sides before the scandal was exposed in 2014 by The Herald Sun. Its extensive breadth was finally revealed late last year when a raft of suppressions surrounding it were lifted.
Now a Royal Commission probe into the justice system is under way; and hundreds of charges and convictions of the Victorian underbelly figures are in jeopardy.
She was not just part of this disturbing gangland era, she was directing it. According to her own admission, she helped police in as many as 386 cases during her time as an informer.
Already one of her former clients Rod Karam, convicted and sentenced to 35 years jail over a world-record ecstasy haul of 15 million pills hidden in tomato tins linked to the Italian Mafia, is taking his case back to court on the grounds her duplicitous role meant he did not get a fair trial. Mokbel is also now appealing as is a member of the notorious Outlaw Motor Cycle gang Black Uhlans. There are at least 20 convictions, all clients of Gobbo, the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions is reviewing for potential tainting.
Evidence by the royal commission has also heard her relationship with both cops and crims went beyond professional; and in at least two instances, with police handlers and one top crim, was also sexual.
A jailed drug trafficker called Richard Barkho is believed to be the father of one of her two children.
It doesn’t help her cause to know Gobbo is actually part of a distinguished judicial dynasty. Her uncle is Sir James Gobbo, a Supreme Court judge and former governor of Victoria, who has since issued a statement distancing her from himself and his family — including his children Jeremy Gobbo QC, Flavia Gobbo and Dr Olivia Gobbo. Nicola Gobbo’s sister Catherine Gobbo is a commercial barrister and is also estranged from her.
The royal commission is prepared to charge figures within Victoria Police if offences are uncovered.
Since the start of its inquiry, it has been revealed that others in the legal system were approached to work as police informers — including one who has since been murdered.
Gobbo was signed as an informer two years before she became a working lawyer, after she was arrested as a university student in 1993 over a trafficable quantity of amphetamines.
LAWYER X: THE KEY PLAYERS
LAWYER X
Nicola Gobbo, barrister who acted for high-profile gangland and Mafia figures, who gave information to both clients and police as both a registered and unregistered informer.
SIMON OVERLAND
Victorian police commissioner 2009-2011 and assistant commissioner of crime from 2003. The architect of Lawyer X’s informer role, which was crucial to the anti-gang Purana taskforce he had set up to stop the gangland war.
PAUL DALE
Ex-drug squad detective and handler of Terence Hodson along with officer David Miechel. Dale, Miechel and Hodson were charged with robbing a Mokbel drug house in 2003. Hodson later made statements against the officers after legal advice from Lawyer X. Dale and Lawyer X had a sexual relationship.
TERRY AND CHRISTINE HODSON
Murdered in their Kew home in May 2004. Shot execution-style in the back of the head while they were on their knees. Knew their killers who have never officially been identified. After a 2003 burglary Hodson told Lawyer X about his dealing with corrupt police and made a statement against Paul Dale and Miechel over the burglary.
ROB KARAM
Drug trafficker linked to Tony Mokbel who was jailed for 37 years for the Mafia ‘Tomato Tins’ ecstasy plot. In a test case has claimed Lawyer X enticed him to commit crimes.
CARL WILLIAMS
Gangland killer and drugs trafficker who orchestrated the murders of Jason and Lewis Moran, Graham Kinniburgh, Mark Mallia and Michael Marshall. Along with Lawyer X gave police information about the murders of the Hodsons but was killed in jail before Dale was due to face trial.
PASQUALE ‘PAT’ BARBARO
Mafia boss was head of the 30-person drug syndicate convicted of the 2007 tomato tins plot.
MICK GATTO
Melbourne identity who socialised with Lawyer X and used her as a legal adviser.
Originally published as Lawyer X doco series: Who the key players are from Melbourne’s gangland war
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