Lawyer X: Nicola Gobbo insiders fear for their safety if evidence made public
The first criminal Nicola Gobbo informed on was her former boyfriend, low level drug dealer Brian Wilson, whom she shared a Carlton home with during her days as a Melbourne Uni law student, more than two decades before she was dubbed Lawyer X.
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The first criminal Nicola Gobbo informed on was her former boyfriend, a low level drug dealer.
In 1993, when Ms Gobbo was a Melbourne University Law Student more than two decades before she was dubbed Lawyer X, police raided the Carlton home she shared with Brian Wilson and found amphetamines and a haul of cash.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police informants heard Ms Gobbo was charged with the use and possession of cannabis and fined without conviction.
Mr Wilson was given a suspended jail sentence.
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Sgt Trevor Ashton, who was then attached to the District Support Group, spent the next 18 months meeting with Ms Gobbo on an ad hoc basis, often at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where she worked.
Ms Gobbo told Sgt Ashton that Wilson was involved in drug trafficking and firearms.
In 1995 Sgt Ashton registered Ms Gobbo as an informer saying she was a law student who was living with a known criminal.
“She wants to pursue a career as a solicitor.”
Then in 1995 police launched a second raid on the property targeting her former boyfriend Brian Wilson.
Ms Gobbo introduced Wilson to an undercover agent but the operation was abruptly stopped after retired assistant commissioner Jack Blayney - then a senior sergeant - described her as a “loose cannon” who was making her own arrangements “and not liaising with investigators.”
Despite his assessment of her in the mid 90s, Mr Blayney sat on a police steering committee - which was investigating the murder of police witnesses Terrence and Chrstine Hodson - and used Ms Gobbo as a witness.
LAWYER X SIGNING NOT OF ‘GREAT SIGNIFICANCE’, SAYS TOP COP
Earlier today Victoria Police assistant commissioner Neil Patterson, responsible for the human source division, told the Lawyer X royal commission that he didn’t place “great significance in Ms Gobbo’s 1995 registration.”
He said a taskforce which was formed to disclose documents to Ms Gobbo’s former clients with appeals afoot, the Royal Commission and the Director of Public Prosecution discovered the earlier registration when they interrogated police records in a storage facility.
He said in June 2018 Operation Lansdow focus was on providing documents to the Director of Public Prosecution for its High Court challenge, who could then also pass on relevant information to the legal teams her former clients who had launched appeals.
Mr Patterson said Ms Gobbo was also registered in 1999, which was widely known, but not relevant to criminals conducting an appeal or Victoria Police’s court battles with the Office of Public Prosecutions.
“I didn’t place any great significance on the 1995 registration,” he said.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that it took police more than six months to disclose that gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo was listed as a registered informant, a decade earlier than was previously known.
Mr Patterson told the Lawyer X royal commission that in June 2018, Victoria Police had discovered Ms Gobbo was first registered as an informant in 1995.
In June 2018 the Office of Public Prosecution was fighting Victoria Police to inform Ms Gobbo’s former client about her informant status and that her conduct may have made their convictions unsafe in the HIgh Court. A number of her former clients had also appealed their sentences - claiming her informing had infringed their legal rights.
But it was not until January of this year that Victoria Police informed the Royal Commission investigated her conduct of the earlier registration or the Office of Public Prosecution about her earlier informing.
The commission also heard that Victoria Police continued to use the gangland barrister as an informant for 18 months longer than they have previously admitted.
In the days before the commission was due to hear its first witness, Victoria Police revealed to it that Nicola Gobbo was still providing information on the criminal underworld until August 2010, 19 months after she was deregistered as an informant in January 2009.
The Commission has received over 35 submissions from criminals who believe they had their legal rights impinged by “Ms Gobbo’s conduct and that of Victoria Police”.
Chris Winneke, counsel assisting the Royal Commission into the management of Police informants, said it was not until then Chief Commissioner Simon Overland issued a directive to no longer use Ms Gobbo as an informant that her relationship with Victoria Police ceased.
Ms Gobbo was first registered as an informant in 1995 but her first contact with police was during her arrest in 1993. She informed on a number of her gangland clients — including Tony Mokbel, Carl Williams and a number of their henchmen. Her gangland informing was most prolific between 2005 to 2009.
Mr Winneke said there has been some “frustration” on the part of the commission in receiving documents from Victoria Police. But he said the lawyers acting for the Commission put the delay down to the voluminous number of documents the commission had requested.
The commission was sparked after the Herald Sun fought a five year legal battle to reveal Gobbo’s role as a police informer.
LAWYER X INSIDERS FEAR FOR SAFETY IF EVIDENCE REVEALED
Some Victorian criminal justice system insiders with knowledge of lawyer Nicola Gobbo being used as a police informer fear coming forward.
They believe their confidentiality will be breached and they could face reprisals if they provide information to the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.
The royal commission will today hear evidence from its first witness during three days of public hearings during which a number of current and former Victoria Police members will be grilled about their knowledge of Ms Gobbo and her informing on clients.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson will be the first to testify today. Mr Paterson is in charge of the force’s intelligence and covert support command, which includes the use of human sources such as Ms Gobbo.
The concern some potential whistleblowers have about providing information to the commission stems from the wording on the commission’s website.
It states submissions to the royal commission can be treated by the commission as public, anonymous or confidential and the commission, not the submitter, will decide which category to put the submission in.
“It seems that where the royal commission and the submitter cannot agree on confidentiality then the submission can be withdrawn by the submitter,” one potential whistleblower told the Herald Sun.
“This seems to be an odd state of affairs if it means that because a submitter is not reassured, then they withdraw what the commission considers is information which could substantially assist its inquiry.
“The independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Ombudsman are often faced with the very same problem.
“But they have in place tried and tested legal whistleblower protections for those who need to retain confidentiality for a number of reasons.”
A spokeswoman for the royal commission on Tuesday assured the Herald Sun it would do all it could to ensure confidentially when it was requested by submitters.
“The commission considers a number of factors when determining the status of a submission, including the submitter’s preference, legal and privacy considerations, and the safety of all persons affected by matters raised in the submission and the inquiry,” she said.
“Be assured that the commission will give great weight to a submitter’s preference for confidentiality.”
The commission has already received 90 submissions.