Key report expected to make drug kingpin Tony Mokbel’s bid for freedom one step closer
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel’s bid for freedom is set to be bolstered on Monday, with explosive findings about his prosecution expected to be released.
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Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel’s bid to be freed from jail is set to receive a major boost on Monday.
A key report to the Lawyer X royal commission is expected to find Mokbel’s prosecutions were tainted because police used his barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informer.
The long-awaited 2000-page report — due to be released on Monday afternoon by counsel assisting the commission Chris Winneke, QC — will detail how Ms Gobbo’s informing swung gangland prosecutions against her clients, including Mokbel and Carl Williams.
In his submissions, Mr Winneke will denounce Victoria Police’s “noble cause corruption’’, hidden from the courts over a decade of cases.
Lawyers for Mokbel, who is serving 22 years in prison for drug trafficking, are filing a fresh appeal containing evidence unearthed by the commission, which will bolster his bid to walk out of jail.
Sources told the Herald Sun the evidence “only points in one direction’’.
Mokbel, who spent 15 months on the run after fleeing his 2006 drug trial, is among more than a dozen criminals seeking to overturn their convictions. The police’s failure to disclose Ms Gobbo’s role — considered one of the “golden rules’’ of the justice system — will be central to their cases.
Evidence shows federal and state prosecution agencies knew Ms Gobbo was an informer while Mokbel’s drug trafficking case was ongoing.
The infamous “tomato tins’’ crime syndicate’s cases — over the importation of more than 15 million pills hidden in tomato cans from Italy — were also still proceeding.
In September 2012, Mokbel was appealing against his convictions when then Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion was told by Victoria Police legal counsel Fin McRae and senior officer Doug Fryer that Ms Gobbo may have been informing on her own clients.
Almost a year earlier, in November 2011, Mr Fryer and then assistant commissioner Graham Ashton told commonwealth prosecutor Krista Breckweg of her status.
TRUTH IS FLEXIBLE FOR NICOLA GOBBO
Yet Ms Gobbo’s role against organised crime figures she acted for and stung, such as Mokbel, Pasquale “Pat” Barbaro, and “tomato tins” co-conspirators Rob Karam and Saverio Zirilli, was not disclosed until years later. Notes made by Mr McRae show “T Mokbel’’ and his extradition was raised. “Alleged use of LPP (legal professional privilege) materials by “F’’ (Gobbo) relating to Mokbel extradition,” the notes said. “VicPol does not have details of information passed on (if any) as this is part of intelligence holdings.’’
At the time of the meeting, Victoria Police had already commissioned and received the Comrie Report’ on the Gobbo saga, but did not release the “highly protected” document to Mr Champion.
Victoria Police’s disclosures have been described as a “drip feed’’ to prosecuting agencies.
Ms Gobbo’s role in helping police secure convictions against gangland players such as Williams, is also heavily scrutinised by Mr Winneke in a series of case studies.
One killer was influenced by Ms Gobbo, his lawyer, to confess that the 2003 shooting of “hot dog’’ vendor Michael Marshall was a premeditated hit after he initially claimed to have been unwittingly involved. After being found guilty of the Marshall murder, Williams pleaded guilty to three more hits before he was murdered in prison in 2010.
The submissions make a series of proposed adverse findings against Ms Gobbo and senior police, whose actions were described by the High Court in 2018 as “reprehensible’’ and “atrocious’’.
They include findings of possible criminal conduct and professional misconduct by police officers.
It is understood the submissions have sent shockwaves through Victorian and federal police circles.
Even now, Victoria Police is continuing its sustained attempts to gag parts of counsel assisting’s submissions. Commissioner Margaret McMurdo will review the submissions before handing down her final report, due on November 30.
The Herald Sun on Friday revealed mafia boss Barbaro, serving 30 years to life in jail over his role as ringleader in what was the world’s biggest ecstasy smuggling operation, had become the latest of the “tomato tins” syndicate to launch an appeal due to the Lawyer X scandal.
Ten syndicate members are still in prison.
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* Explosive new revelations and exclusive extracts from gripping new book Lawyer X, by Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, only in the Herald Sun and heraldsun.com.au this weekend
* Lawyer X, the story of how one woman played off police and criminals, is published by HarperCollins Australia on September 7. Pre-order your copy now at Booktopia
* Live online Q&A with Dowsley and Carlyon, hosted by Sky News’ Peter Stefanovic, on their battle to expose the truth. Send questions to ask.lawyerx@news.com.au and watch at facebook.com/heraldsun or facebook.com/TrueCrimeAustralia at 6.30pm AEST, September 9
* Watch Peter Stefanovic’s compelling two-part documentary Lawyer X: The Untold Story on Sky News at 8pm AEST, September 12 and 19