Victoria Police ignored officers’ doubts over ‘loose cannon’ Nicola Gobbo: royal commission
A Victoria Police officer identified Nicola Gobbo as a “loose cannon” at least 14 years before the force stopped using the defence barrister as an informer — and there were other doubters too.
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A Victoria Police officer identified Nicola Gobbo as a “loose cannon” at least 14 years before the force stopped using the defence barrister as an informer.
There were other doubters, too. Another detective dismissed her as unsuitable two years later.
She was “too overt” in her desire to provide information, he concluded in an official report. Her relationships with officers were “inappropriate” and she held drugs for her clients.
Oh, there was one other problem, he said. Nicola Gobbo was a solicitor, and solicitors ordinarily cannot inform on their clients.
PROBE INTO LAWYER X’S CARL WILLIAMS EVIDENCE
FIRST CRIMINAL LAWYER X INFORMED ON WAS EX-BOYFRIEND
READ NEIL PATERSON’S STATEMENT
Several themes emerged from the first day of testimony at the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants on Wednesday.
One goes that Gobbo was betraying people who trusted her before she qualified as a lawyer. The other is that her opening forays as a police double agent failed.
She duped her once-boyfriend Brian Wilson by introducing him to an under-cover officer posing as a drugs customer. The sting went nowhere, as did claims of money-laundering against her employer, who thought of her as a de facto family member.
In 1999, the officers who recruited her, as Informer MFG13, stated she had no known history of informing.
Here, too, runs another thread in the Gobbo conundrum — internal police miscommunication.
Wednesday’s evidence, by Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson, gave hints on points of interest ahead. He agreed he would assume that the steering committee of the Petra Taskforce, which investigated the killings of Terry and Christine Hodson, would have known she was a practising lawyer.
The committee included two later chief commissioners, Graham Ashton and Simon Overland, as well as the detective who had identified Gobbo as a “loose cannon” in 1996.
The royal commission looms as a drip feed of answers leading to more questions in coming days.
But the pace will be slow, if Wednesday is a measure.
GOBBO’S INFORMER FORM
HOW LAWYER X TURNED HITMAN AGAINST CARL WILLIAMS
WILLIAMS COMPLAINED TO TOP JUDGE ABOUT GOBBO
GANGLAND PLAYER’S DEADLY MEAL WITH CARL
The evidence began 2¼ hours after the royal commission opened. Lawyers wanted to wrangle about orders first.
Seven QCs were among 20 lawyers named as representatives of six interested parties, each charging like a poker machine jackpot for their services.
Counsel assisting, Chris Winneke, QC, asked about Mr Paterson’s training in “disaster management”.
Mr Paterson might have a new honorary degree in the field by the time the process was finished, Mr Winneke joked.
Mr Paterson was largely ill-placed to address the specifics posed by Mr Winneke. But his evidence showed police obstructionism, which dates five years in legal battles, cannot disguise a growing checklist of historical errors.
If only Victoria Police had listened to two of their own from the start.