Lawyer X received shocking death threats as suspicion grew: royal commission
The former head of Purana Taskforce thought “it was inevitable” that Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo would be killed after she received a barrage of death threats as underworld figures began to suspect she was snitching on them.
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Gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo received more than 16 death threats during the time she was a registered police informer, the Lawyer X Royal Commission heard.
The threats, most of which accused her of being an underworld snitch, were thought to be so serious that Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland believed she should have been deregistered in 2006.
Instead, Gobbo continued to be registered as an informer, who was providing information against gangland hitman and underworld bosses Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel, until 2009.
The barrister — who later became known as Lawyer X — was repeatedly called a “dog” in anonymous threats, underworld slang for someone assisting police.
Former Purana Taskforce head Gavan Ryan said he had multiple conversations with Mr Overland about deregistering Gobbo and sending her overseas.
“I thought it was inevitable she would be killed,” Mr Ryan told the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.
“I felt it was wrong word, one wrong thing, someone says something or they put two and two together and she is in a body bag,” he said. “I didn’t want that on my head.”
Mr Ryan said that at a meeting with Mr Overland in December 2006, both agreed Gobbo should be “eased out” of the informing program.
The threats escalated as underworld suspicions about Gobbo grew more intense, the inquiry heard.
In May 2007, she received an anonymous call where someone barked like a dog.
On December 13, 2007, when she was providing information about her client Tony Mokbel and his drug manufacturing cartel, she received a series of troubling threats that she reported to her police handlers and the Purana Taskforce, the inquiry heard.
“Hey dog we warned you not to call or talk to pigs but you being the dog call your boyfriend from Purana. Now you will get it dog one in the head and one in the heart,” an anonymous message said.
“I mite (sic) be in your bedroom waiting or maybe get you in the car park as you in home.”
“Anyway its (sic) near for you pig lover dog.”
On March 2008 an anonymous text said: “hello c---, you will be shot in the head, hello c--- mole, I am watching you, I will get you.”
Gobbo continued to receive threats until at least December 2008.
She also had two bullets mailed to her Port Melbourne apartment and her car was firebombed in April 2008.
Mr Ryan said the threats were so serious she should have been deregistered, no matter the value of her information.
He said he had formed that view, along with Mr Overland, in 2006.
But instead police kept accepting her information and she was registered until 2009. And in May 2007, Mr Overland started exploring the possibility of using Gobbo as a potential witness in a double murder investigation.
The commission had heard that Gobbo had been tasked to speak to speak to heavily investigated former officer, Paul Dale, who in 2007 was then suspected of being involved in the 2004 murders of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine.
GOBBO ‘TOLD JUDGE KNEW’
Nicola Gobbo was told corruption-busting judge Tony Fitzgerald knew she was a police informer and would not expose her at a secret star chamber grilling.
The Lawyer X royal commission heard Gobbo had been called to the secretive Office of Police Integrity hearings in 2007, which were investigating the 2004 murder of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine.
Police then believed former drug squad officer Paul Dale was involved in the killings.
According to police reports two days before the July 17, 2007, hearing Gobbo’s handlers assured her Mr Fitzgerald would be told she had “assisted police in the past” and due to threats on her life he would refrain from asking who she had told about the hearing.
Divulging an OPI hearing was a criminal offence.
Gobbo also asked for Gavan Ryan, head of the Petra Taskforce which was investigating the Hodsons’ murder, to attend the hearings.
The commission heard Gobbo’s OPI hearing was stopped when Mr Fitzgerald asked if she had discussed her evidence with anyone but her lawyer.
Gobbo told Mr Fitzgerald she could not answer and the hearing was adjourned while she spoke to Mr Ryan.
Mr Ryan, who was sitting in the office of OPI’s head George Brouwer watching the evidence, said he talked to a crying Gobbo and told her he could not help her and she should seek legal advice.
After a 30-minute break, Mr Fitzgerald said he believed Gobbo could answer the question in a qualified way.
Gobbo said: “There is another person who I have spoken to, and Inspector Gavan Ryan is aware of who it is and who it relates to.”
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LAWYER X ‘NOT GIVEN IMMUNITY’: POLICE CHIEF
She was not called to a scheduled third day of the OPI hearing. Last night, Mr Fitzgerald, who rose to prominence after exposing corruption in the Queensland police force, denied he was told about Gobbo’s informer status.
“To the best of my recollection I was not told,’’ he said.
Mr Ryan said he didn’t know why the OPI hearings had not recommenced as it would have been “discussed at a higher level”.
Mr Ryan said then assistant commissioner Simon Overland told him to watch Gobbo’s hearing but was not told why.
“I got the impression they didn’t want to tell me why,” he said. “It was unusual, I was there, not knowing why I was there … taking notes.”