Royal Commission: Lawyer X claimed Mick Gatto told her he ‘murdered’ hitman

Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo made an extraordinary claim to her police handlers about gangland identity Mick Gatto and the death of hitman Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin, the Lawyer X Royal Commission has heard.

Mick Gatto told his associates that he’d “murdered” gangland hitman Andrew “Benji Veniamin, Lawyer X says.

Carlton crew boss Mick Gatto allegedly told his associates over a steak dinner that he “murdered” Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin, the Lawyer X Royal Commission has been told.

The Commission today heard gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo told handlers that when she was dining with Mr Gatto at a steak restaurant he said he had “murdered” Veniamin.

Gatto was charged with Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin’s murder in March 2004, but was acquitted on self-defence grounds a year later.

Unknown to Mr Gatto, during the June 2007 meeting, Gobbo was acting as a secret Victoria Police informer and fed the conversation back to her handlers.

Andrew ''Benji'' Veniamin was killed by Mick Gatto at a Carlton restaurant in 2004.

Gatto was found not guilty of murdering Veniamin.

Gobbo told handlers Mr Gatto met with her, his associate Steve Kaya, a gun-carrying bodyguard and solicitor Alistair Grigor at the steakhouse on June 22, 2007, the day Faruk Orman was charged with the 2002 murder of Victor Peirce.

The men were discussing who had “rolled” on Mr Orman and how much the police had on the murder, Gobbo told police.

The Royal Commission has been told handlers passed on the information to anti-gangland Purana Taskforce head Jim O’Brien who made a note of the report in his diary.

“Gatto said shooter was Benji but I’ve murdered him so who else could be giving evidence,” detective-inspector O’Brien’s note said.

Gobbo told her handlers Mr Gatto said he someone close to the Purana Taskforce had told him he was an investigation target.

Mr Gatto said he believed detectives were “putting pressure on Orman to try and get him to roll,” Mr O’Brien’s diary records.

“All concerned Faruk will not cope in gaol, obsessive compulsive and has had to have company around him.”

Mr Gatto believed that another underworld hitman, whose identity is suppressed, had given evidence against Mr Orman.

Mr O’Brien’s said he passed on the information to the lead investigator in the Peirce murder. Orman, after spending 12 years in jail for the 2002 Bay St, Port Melbourne murder, had his conviction quashed this year.

Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo pictured with Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin (left) and Carl Williams at the christening of Williams’ daughter.

It was suspected that Veniamin was the shooter in the Peirce killing and Mr Orman was convicted on the basis that he had driven him to Port Melbourne.

But Mr Orman’s conviction was overturned on the basis that Gobbo had convinced a gangland hitman to give evidence against him while she was acting as Mr Orman’s lawyer.

The Lawyer X Royal Commission also heard that, at the time of the 2007 steakhouse meeting, Gobbo was speaking to drug baron Tony Mokbel in Greece, where he had been arrested.

Mr O’Brien’s diary note records that Gobbo had told drug baron Tony Mokbel he was to be charged with the murder of Michael Marshall.

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Gobbo also reported to handlers Mokbel was constantly sobbing about being locked up in a Greek prison.

“Mokbel not handling jail well, continually crying.”

A toupee-wearing Mokbel was arrested in an Athens coffee shop in June 2007 after he had skipped bail on drug charges.

The commission has heard during his long extradition process Gobbo was in contact with Mokbel and his legal team, then feeding the conversations back to handlers.

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