Cop had Lawyer X fling, took her to police ball as details emerge of Nicola Gobbo’s sign up as informant
A police officer has admitted having a “physical intimate relationship” with Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo after he registered the gangland barrister as a snitch.
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A police officer who registered Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo as an informer has admitted having a sexual relationship with the gangland barrister turned supergrass.
The Lawyer X royal commission heard detective Senior Sergeant Tim Argall had an “episode of physical intimacy” with Gobbo, after she officially stopped providing him with information.
Sen-Sgt Argall, who is still in the force, registered Gobbo as an informer in 1995, and said they would meet up after court for drinks or lunch in the years after.
But he could not remember what led to their 1997 romp, saying: “I don’t think it was after court. There was probably some other contact or arrangement to catch up, and it eventuated from that.”
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He said that from 1995 to 1996, Gobbo had provided information on her drug-dealing boyfriend, Brian Wilson.
The Herald Sun has previously reported on Gobbo’s multiple sexual relationships with police officers and underworld figures.
Former police officer Paul Dale has previously said under oath that he had sex with Gobbo.
The commission heard that during the height of the gangland war in the 2000s, Sen-Sgt Argall, Dale, and Gobbo would go out drinking together.
Sen-Sgt Argall said on at least two occasions he had sought Gobbo’s legal advice in relation to his association with Dale, who was then under a cloud over a burglary at a drug house in Oakleigh. Dale was charged but the case collapsed after the main witness, Dale’s informer Terry Hodson, was killed.
“I just wanted some advice about my association with Paul,” Sen-Sgt Argall said.
Victoria Police fought a series of legal battles to the High Court to prevent Gobbo’s gangland clients being advised that she had been a police informer from 2005 to 2009.
It was only in December, when the royal commission was called, that Victoria Police revealed Gobbo had also been registered as a “human source” in 1995, and again in 1999.
During his evidence, Sen-Sgt Argall told the commission that while at the homicide squad in the early 2000s, he had invited Gobbo to one of the squad’s functions. “I invited her on one occasion, and then after that I think she invited herself,” he said.
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Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton’s chief of staff was involved in registering Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, as a police informant in 1999.
Brett Curran was the senior sergeant in charge of the Asset Recovery Squad in 1999, when Gobbo, then a practising lawyer, was giving information to Victoria Police alleging her employer was involved in money laundering and fraud.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants heard that Mr Curran, who was the former chief of staff to Premier Daniel Andrews when he was in opposition, was briefed about the squad’s plan to register Gobbo as an informer.
It was only six months ago, despite a series of legal cases involving her informing, that police admitted they had publicly admitted they registered Gobbo before 2004.
Detective Inspector Gavan Segrave told the commission Gobbo had said she would provide information on her former employer having a trust account that would showed her employer was receiving payments from both legal aid and the client.
She had also claimed her employer was helping to launder money through a Real Estate company that was run by a client of hers — Peter Reid.
He told the commission he would have briefed his Senior-Sergeant Brett Curran “and others” before registering Gobbo as an informant.
But he said he could not recall specifically what he briefed Mr Curran on.
Insp Segrave was first introduced to Gobbo by drug squad detectives, who they worked closely with.
Her information led them to establishing Operation Ramsden to investigate the activities of Gobbo’s former employer. Insp Segrave said first met Gobbo with Jeff Pope, who rose to be assistant commissioner, with corrupt drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn at a
two hour meeting at the Emerald Hotel in South Melbourne.
Sgt Segrave said he could not recall if there was drinking at the meeting but said while the meeting went fine Gobbo “never seemed to warm to me.”
She provided more information in a series of meetings with detective constable Pope, but Segrave told the commission
the investigation Operation Ramsden concluded with no charges being laid, or even Gobbo’s former employer being interviewed.
Gobbo was handed back to the drug squad in a final meeting with detective constable Pope and Sgt Strawhorn. “She was not able to provide the information she had originally promised,” Insp Segrave said.
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In her informant registration application form, police said Gobbo was “both credible and reputable” and “had no known history of supplying information to police.”
He said her acting as a lawyer with legal professional privilege obligations would have been something he was “mindful” of before registering her.
While acting up as a Superintendent, Segrave, was involved in discussions with the upper echelons of Victoria Police about seeking to legally restrain the media from naming Gobbo as a source, the commission heard.
He said he took a “conscious decision” not to reveal to his superiors his 1999 involvement with Gobbo, so he could “quarantine information from that investigation to those who need to know.”