Carl Williams’ lawyer was ‘raided’ by Nicola Gobbo
Terrified that gangland kingpin Carl Williams would discover she’d help a star witness roll on him, Nicola Gobbo made this extraordinary move.
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Nicola Gobbo committed a burglary to get access to Carl Williams’ legal files.
The covert “human source’’ known as Lawyer X had become so obsessed with being Victoria Police’s greatest informer she told her handlers that she had raided the office of Carl Williams’ new barrister, Sharon Cure, in June 2007.
“Gobbo-gate’’ occurred shortly after Williams had been sentenced by Justice Betty King to a long jail term for a series of gangland murders. But he was also seeking a better deal for himself and was negotiating with authorities.
Gobbo found phone records to Barwon prison which showed that she had contact with the star witness against Williams.
Counsel assisting the Lawyer X Royal Commission Chris Winneke said her conduct could have amounted to the offence of burglary.
“It would be an extraordinary thing for a barrister to go through another member of counsel’s office on a weekend looking for material which might be of interest to her and of interest to the police,” Mr Winneke said.
Mr Winneke read from a June 25, 2007 a police report where Gobbo told her handler she was annoyed police had allowed those records to be obtained.
Gobbo was fearful of Williams learning that she had helped the star witness roll on him.
“She’s annoyed about this as she was reassured these records could never be obtained and she says that she’s now got no faith in the system when she sees things like this,” the note from Gobbo’s handler records.
A senior Gobbo handler — giving evidence under the pseudonym Sandy White — said he does not recall being told about the burglary of the chamber office but agreed it could be considered Gobbo had committed a burglary offence.
Once inside Ms Cure’s office, Gobbo read through Williams’ brief of evidence and subpoena material relevant to his case.
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Mr White said such an incident would have been a great cause for concern for him and the whole of the Source Development Unit that was managing Gobbo.
Ms Cure, who is now a Tasmanian magistrate, was only made aware of the intrusion recently.
It is understood the office was generally locked when unattended and questions have been raised as to whether a master key was used to gain entry.
The intrusion risked exposing Gobbo’s informer status, and had that occurred, would have complicated the hard-fought conviction of Williams.
Gobbo had not only played an integral role in turning at least two hitmen into informers against Williams, which she wrote “broke the dam wall’’ in the gangland feuding, the rogue barrister was key to collapsing Mokbel’s criminal empire.
Gobbo’s fellow barristers, with whom she shared chambers in Melbourne’s courts district, are regarded as some of Australia’s highest profile lawyers.
Gobbo, who had acted for Williams and was considered part of his and Tony Mokbel’s ‘crew’, had by then “rolled’’ several underworld hitmen against Williams — her client.
Before the intrusion, Williams had written to authorities such as the Legal Services Board and to Justice Betty King to complain about Gobbo acting unethically.
But despite this, Williams and Gobbo continued to talk regularly in 2007.
In May of that year Williams would be sentenced to a minimum 35 years jail by Justice King.
It was during the period that Williams, already convicted of the October 2003 murder of hotdog vendor and drug dealer Michael Marshall, began co-operating with police.
The Herald Sun has been told Williams made a statement in early 2007 about the murders of Terence and Christine Hodson which implicated Gobbo.
Hodson was a police informer handled by drug squad detectives Paul Dale and David Miechel.
He alleged they conspired to rip-off a drug house in Oakleigh, but was executed alongside his wife in their Kew home before the case got to court.
In February 2007, Williams had pleaded guilty to the murders of Jason Moran, Mark Mallia and Lewis Moran.
The following May he was sentenced to a minimum 35 years jail — which caused him to scream at his lawyers about the severity of the sentence.
Williams, who dubbed himself “The Premier’’, had wanted a deal for his guilty plea of under 30 years.
By that point Williams had already been found guilty and sentenced over ordering the murder of Mr Marshall, who was shot in a South Yarra street in 2003.