Documents reveal Carl Williams’ killer Matthew Johnson bungled hit
An innocent couple was terrorised in their home during a botched hit, just hours after a terrifying midnight carjacking by the man who would go on to kill Carl Williams in prison. This is the night of Melbourne mayhem revealed in Lawyer X documents.
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Stunning details of a bungled hit in which Carl Williams’ killer terrorised an innocent family are exposed in documents unearthed due to the Lawyer X scandal.
Underworld enforcer Matthew Johnson was arrested by officers on patrol in Glen Iris on May 24, 2007.
In the hours prior, Johnson had been on a crime spree that included a carjacking and aggravated burglary.
Johnson was hiding a loaded gun when he was arrested in a train station car park while standing next to a damaged stolen vehicle.
And records uncovered due to the Lawyer X scandal reveal that barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo told police that the burglary was supposed to be a hit.
Gobbo informed officers that two Mafia-connected drug dealers who she acted for had sent Johnson to extort, harm or murder another trafficker.
But he and associate Mark Morgan broke into the wrong house.
In the carjacking, Johnson put a gun to a woman’s head as she, her 15-year-old daughter and a friend sat eating a midnight snack outside Doveton McDonald’s.
They drove the stolen car from Doveton to Craigieburn, an outer northern suburb where the target lived.
There they held a couple at gunpoint in their bedroom while demanding to know the location of a person.
Police reports show the drug dealers later argued over who had given the wrong address.
One of them, Gobbo told police, had been footing Johnson’s legal bills and ordered him to carry out the hit as the target owed a debt over a marijuana deal.
She told her police handlers she had been privy to a conversation between the two dealers where they openly discussed the plot. She said she had advised against it.
On the day of Johnson’s arrest, Gobbo received a phone call informing her that he was in custody. The Herald Sun has been told that Gobbo offered to visit him.
Reports show that Gobbo delayed any attempt to visit Johnson after his initial arrest but planned to see him on May 29, five days later. It is unclear if this occurred.
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During Gobbo’s informing career, particularly in her most prolific stint from 2005 to 2009, she was given unfettered access to prisons where she gathered intelligence for police.
In April 2010, Johnson bludgeoned Williams to death in Barwon Prison after becoming aware he had been talking to police.
In a legal letter to the Herald Sun this month, Johnson denied Gobbo visited him in prison in 2009, following a report in the paper that she had made contact with him.
Johnson stopped short of saying he had never been visited by the barrister.
The Lawyer X royal commission resumes today.