Lawyer X link to infamous Auskick clinic gangland killers
Phone records show Nicola Gobbo communicated regularly with one of the men behind the double murder of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro in the week before their killings — and legal sources suspect she knew the hit was coming.
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Nicola Gobbo spoke to one of the men behind the infamous execution of Jason Moran an hour before the hit.
Phone records show the man who supplied the guns for the hit, dubbed “The Italian”, called Gobbo at 9.33am on June 21, 2003, an hour before Moran and bodyguard Pasquale Barbaro were shot in front of Moran’s children at an Auskick clinic.
Call logs obtained by the Herald Sun show Gobbo and “The Italian’’ communicated regularly in the week leading up to the double murder, including a call at 11.52pm the night before.
Legal sources would later speculate Gobbo knew the hit — organised by the Moran family’s underworld nemesis Carl Williams — was about to take place. Details of the calls also prompted speculation among lawyers that Gobbo may have helped plan an alibi for “The Italian” and close friend Williams, involving blood tests in Prahran as part of a diet regimen.
“I’m confident she knew what was about to happen,’’ a legal source said. “It was so obvious to me she was in with these people. She was in up to her neck with all these heavy-duty criminals and I just couldn’t work out why.
“It is the relationship with (‘The Italian’) that links her to the murders.’’
The brazen public executions of Moran and Barbaro, at the Cross Keys Reserve, Essendon, thrust Melbourne’s bloody gangland war into the national spotlight.
A contracted gunman opened fire about 10.35am on June 21, after approaching the mini-van Moran was sitting in.
The masked man, who cannot be named, used a shotgun to blast Moran in the driver’s seat, then pulled out a revolver to shoot dead Barbaro, who was in the passenger seat.
Moran’s twin children were among five Auskick kids in the back of the van who saw the horrifying attack.
Call charge records indicate the gun supplier talked to Gobbo at length on June 14, a week before the hit, frequently on the Wednesday and Thursday before the attack and for about 10 minutes late on the Friday night.
After getting off the phone with Gobbo in the early hours of the execution day, “The Italian” had at least three calls with the hitman.
Call logs suggest both men had been up through the night.
“The Italian” also tried to call Williams, who ultimately pleaded guilty to ordering the hit. The phone records were contained in evidence which was to be used in Williams’ prosecution, but were never aired because of his plea. When the calls were examined, it was speculated Gobbo was in a romantic relationship with “The Italian” and had helped devise his alibi.
On July 4, 2003, less than a fortnight after the Moran-Barbaro murders, Gobbo escorted “The Italian’’ to a police interview, where he gave his alibi.
Police reports reveal he told anti-gangland detective Sergeant Stuart Bateson he had gone with Williams to Victoria House, a medical clinic in Prahran, at the time of the hit.
He said he picked up Williams about 9am at the house of Williams’ mother, “Barb”, before they travelled via CityLink to the clinic.
Sgt Bateson noted in an information report also obtained by the Herald Sun that “The Italian” had spoken to Gobbo by phone twice on the morning of the murders.
He also noted the phone conversations were “confirmed by Gobbo’’.
The information report does not specify the time of the calls.
Gobbo’s connections with the Williams crew led the anti-gangland Purana taskforce to consider tapping her phone.
EXPLAINER: HOW GANGLAND WAR UNFOLDED
Soon after, she began giving information to Sgt Bateson, in a precursor to her most involved period of informing to police.
The supplier of the guns secured a heavily discounted jail term over his role in the Moran-Barbaro executions after Gobbo helped make him a supergrass.
The Lawyer X royal commission has also uncovered that Gobbo was allowed by police to read and edit statements by “The Italian”.
WILLIAMS V THE MORANS
October 13, 1999
Drug dealer Carl Williams is shot in a park by underworld figures, brothers Mark and Jason Moran. He suffers stomach wounds, but survives.
June 15, 2000
Mark Moran is shot dead outside his Aberfeldie home, in what is believed to be a revenge attack.
Mid 2001
Police thwart a plot by the Moran family to kill Williams at a planned christening for his daughter.
June 21, 2003
Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro are murdered by a masked hitman who uses a shotgun and revolver to kill them in front of children at an Auskick clinic.
GOBBO, CLIENT SPOKE NIGHT BEFORE HIT
Homicide squad detective Stuart Bateson drove to Carl Williams’ house after dark on the day Jason Moran was murdered.
The gangland war had spilt in to the mainstream.
Williams was the obvious suspect in Moran’s public execution alongside friend and bodyguard Pasquale Barbaro at a children’s footy clinic that morning, June 21, 2003.
Bateson knocked on Williams’ door at John Paul Dr at Hillside, in Melbourne’s north, at 9.25pm. It went unanswered. There was no sign anyone was home. So Bateson left a card for Williams to contact him.
The following day, a Sunday, Williams’ lawyer was on the phone. Bateson told the lawyer he needed to know where Williams was at the time of the murders.
Williams arrived the next day, oozing confidence, his father, George, in tow. Williams had an alibi. He sounded over alibied.
On the Friday night before the Moran-Barbaro shootings, he fought with wife, Roberta, and went to his mum’s house in Primrose St, Essendon, to sleep the night.
Williams said his mate, dubbed “The Italian’’, picked him up in a silver BMW about 9am the next morning.
Williams was overweight and “The Italian” wanted to shed a few kilos.
“Fat Boy’’, as Williams was known, and “The Italian’’ were at a health clinic on the other side of Melbourne when a balaclava-clad man used two guns to shoot Moran and his mate Barbaro in the front seat of a van.
Williams and “The Italian” drove “to Melbourne Pathology located at Victoria House, 316 Malvern Rd, Prahran, where they both had a blood test for a diet they wanted to go on,’’ Bateson’s police report states.
The pair drove through CityLink tolls in movements that could be verified.
On the way, we now know, “The Italian” called his lawyer, Nicola Gobbo. They spoke late the night before.
Williams got his needle at 10.15am, which precluded him from being at Cross Keys Reserve at the time of the hit.
On July 4, “The Italian’’ arrived with his lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, to speak with Bateson.
It is alleged Gobbo visited the Purana anti-gangland taskforce office in a clandestine late-night arrangement to alter statements by “The Italian”. Gobbo became part of his alibi when she confirmed she spoke to him twice on the morning of the killings.
Phone records showing her frequent contact with “The Italian” on his multiple phones in the lead-up to the Jason Moran killing draw comparisons with her unseemly relationships before the killings of Terry and Christine Hodson less than a year later.
Moran knew his life was in peril from Williams.
He had avoided a Williams bullet since Mark and Jason Moran shot him in the stomach over drug debts in 1999.
Jason Moran taunted the wounded Williams: “We want that bullet back you f----- dog.’’
Williams tried to oblige.
He had Mark Moran shot outside his Aberfeldie home in 2000, a murder Williams would be charged over but never prosecuted for.
The vendetta between the drug clans exploded into a string of extraordinary hit schemes. Williams wanted to kill Judith Moran, Mark and Jason’s mother, and purportedly sought a rocket launcher to fire into Jason Moran’s house.
MOKBEL’S BID TO END UNDERWORLD WAR
Police say they foiled a plot by Moran’s father, Lewis, for two Sydney hitmen to kill Williams at the christening of his then six-week-old daughter Dhakota. Police at the time decided to imprison Williams to protect him.
A drug sting was hastily organised, which led to Williams and his wife Roberta being arrested.
Saving Williams’ life probably cost Jason Moran his.
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