Graham Ashton briefed on Lawyer X role in 2006, while Gobbo aided gangland payday
Victoria’s top cop Graham Ashton knew of Lawyer X’s role as an informer as early as 2006, while a gangland figure turned supergrass has accused her of helping him get paid for a contract killing, the royal commission has heard.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Chief commissioner Graham Ashton was briefed about Lawyer X’s informer role in 2006, a bombshell statement reveals.
The statement to the Lawyer X royal commission from a key police handler — who is giving evidence as Sandy White — details how Mr Ashton was asked to shield Nicola Gobbo from giving evidence at a compulsory hearing while he was the head of the Office of Police Integrity.
Mr White said he had a meeting with then Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland and Superintendent Anthony Biggin in April 2006 where the likelihood of Gobbo being called to appear at an OPI compulsory hearing into the alleged corrupt cop was discussed.
“I was informed that A/C Overland had spoken with the head of the OPI at that time, Graham Ashton and told him that Ms Gobbo was a human source and requested she not be called to a compulsory hearing as this could compromise her.”
Gobbo did not appear in the case.
Mr White said he was also told there would be a time Gobbo would called to give evidence against heavily investigated former police officer Paul Dale, who she had provided legal advice to and visited in prison when he was on remand for burglary charges in 2004.
Last December, when court orders prohibiting the airing of the Lawyer X scandal were lifted, Mr Ashton had said that he knew Gobbo was an informer while he was the head of the Office of Police Integrity.
“I am very confident in my own knowledge and role that I’ve done nothing wrong in this,” Mr Ashton said in December.
From 2005 to 2009 Gobbo provided police more than 5500 pieces of information about Melbourne’s underworld — including on her infamous gangland clients Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.
Mr Dale, the former sergeant, was suspected of having involvement in the 2004 murder of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine.
Terry Hodson — Mr Dale’s informer — had implicated him in an earlier drug house burglary.
Mr White said he was told it was suspected Mr Dale had stolen an information report identifying Hodson as an informer and leaked it to underworld bosses Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.
Mr Dale was charged with Hodson’s murder in 2009, with the crucial piece of information being a conversation with Gobbo that she had covertly recorded. Charges against Mr Dale were withdrawn when Williams was killed inside Barwon Prison in 2010.
Williams had implicated the former officer in the Hodson murders.
The burglary charges against Mr Dale were withdrawn on the death of Mr Hodson.
HITMAN CLAIMS GOBBO HELPED HIM GET PAID FOR HIT
A gangland figure turned supergrass has accused barrister Nicola Gobbo of helping him get paid for a contract killing.
Gobbo, who later became known as police informer Lawyer X, visited the notorious hitman in jail where he asked her to get a message to underworld kingpins Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.
“I asked her to pass on a message to Carl and Tony and I rubbed my fingers together and mentioned my mother,” he said in a police statement.
The hitman said this was code for Gobbo to provide his mother with money owed for the murder of hot dog vendor Michael Marshall, for which he was in custody.
Marshall was shot four times in the head in front of his five-year-old son outside his luxury apartment in 2003.
“Nicola wrote a note and put it to the screen … it said words to the effect that she would be seeing them that day,” the hitman said.
“A couple of days later I spoke to Carl Williams. He was actually at my mum’s address. During this call my mum or him told me that he had given mum some money. I later discovered that it was only $1500. I have not received any more of the money promised.”
He and the driver were arrested soon after killing Marshall.
RELATED:
HOW POLICE GOT HITMAN TO TURN ON WILLIAMS
‘I WOULD’VE TOLD HER TO RUN’: LAWYER X HANDLER
Two years after his arrest, the hitman agreed to turn prosecution witness against Williams and revealed that Mokbel wanted Marshall — who was also an ecstasy dealer — dead as payback for the murder of his friend Willie Thompson.
Charges against Mokbel were dropped in May 2009.
The Lawyer X royal commission on Tuesday heard Gobbo was incensed when she discovered that she had been named in the hitman’s statement and denied the hitman’s version of events.
In 2007, Williams pleaded guilty to organising the killing of Marshall. james.dowling2@news.com.au