Dozens of officers knew Nicola Gobbo’s true identity via police ‘grapevine’
Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo was classified as a high-risk source, with the informer’s identity supposed to be kept a police secret — but a secret list reveals that was not the case.
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More than 70 police officers knew the identity of Victoria Police’s secret informer, Lawyer X, when she was giving information on her gangland clients.
Barrister Nicola Gobbo was classified as a high-risk source and her identity was meant to be kept a police secret, withheld even from investigators probing Melbourne’s underworld.
But a confidential list of the officers who knew that Gobbo was an informer included dozens of names — with even a water police officer aware Gobbo was a snitch.
The list, obtained by the Lawyer X royal commission, was made and updated by handlers in the source development unit while she was a registered informer from 2005 to 2009.
The commission was told by a former high ranking officer it was likely more officers knew Gobbo was providing information on her clients — which included drug barons Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams — as it would have spread on the police “grapevine”.
Then assistant commissioners Simon Overland and Luke Cornelius were the highest ranking officers on the list. Mr Overland, who became chief commissioner, oversaw much of the force’s interactions with Gobbo from 2005.
Assistant commissioners Bob Hill and Dannye Moloney, now retired, also knew. At least 11 anti-gangland Purana taskforce officers knew, including its head Jim O’Brien and now suspended commander Stuart Bateson.
Three high-ranking officers in internal affairs also knew. A note next to one inspector asked: “Would he have reported this to anyone?”
Gobbo was meant to operate under a “sterile corridor” where information was provided to just her team of handlers and her identity was never widely known, a policy implemented after other high value Victoria Police sources’ identities were revealed due to internal leaks to criminals.
Former commander Terry Purton who was at the first meeting, chaired by Mr Overland, which discussed using Gobbo as a source, said her role soon became common knowledge in crime command.
“Idealistically you wouldn’t want everyone to know about it,’’ he told the commission last month. “But coppers still talk on the grapevine.”
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Mr Purton agreed when asked by counsel assisting the commission Andrew Woods whether her life would have been at risk if her gangland clients knew she was an informer.
Asked whether it was a “serious problem” so many police knew she was a source, Mr Purton said: “It is a serious problem … and maybe I’m wrong but my knowledge at that time was that it was pretty common knowledge.”