Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo bragged of changing evidence
Gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo bragged to her Victoria Police handlers she went to the anti-gangland Purana Taskforce headquarters and doctored statements from the vital underworld witness.
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Lawyer X secretly edited the statements of a key gangland witness, placing in doubt a number of convictions secured by his evidence.
Gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo bragged to her Victoria Police handlers she went to the anti-gangland Purana Taskforce headquarters and doctored statements from the vital underworld witness.
The gangland hitman’s testimony was used to secure convictions against Faruk Orman, Carl Williams and other gangland figures. He gave more than a dozen statements on organised crime matters.
The Lawyer X Royal Commission heard Gobbo bragged to handlers that “no one would ever know” she had changed his original statements.
In an August 2008 recording with her handlers uncovered by the royal commission, Gobbo said she was taken to the Purana Taskforce headquarters at night, in mid-2006, and edited all of the gangland killer’s statements.
“I edited it, I went to Purana secretly one night and edited all his statements. I corrected them but no one ever knows about that, that would never come out, even (the witness) doesn’t know I did that,” she told her handlers.
Gobbo said the doctoring was done without the witness knowing and was overseen by a detective who would never be called to give evidence.
GOBBO’S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUSKICK HITMAN
Gobbo said she believed Purana Taskforce head Jim O’Brien was involved in organising the statement alterations.
But Detective Inspector O’Brien told the Lawyer X royal commission he had no knowledge of Gobbo altering the statements “whatsoever”.
“It shouldn’t have occurred,” he said.
The gangland hitman’s evidence convinced underworld boss Carl Williams to plead guilty to three murders.
The hitman was also the star witness against Faruk Orman in the murder of Victor Peirce.