Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo to sue Victoria Police over informing career
She’s the exiled supergrass whose informing triggered a police scandal, tainted more than 1300 cases and prompted a year-long royal commission. Now, Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo is once again set to sue Victoria Police over her informing career.
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Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, is set to sue police over her informing career with the force and her role becoming public.
Tim Tobin SC said he had been in contact with Gobbo about civil action.
“I’ve spoken to her because she knows me,” he said. “I’ve known Nicola since she was a young girl.”
Mr Tobin is yet to receive a brief from Gobbo, who has been the subject of a year-long royal commission because of her informing role with Victoria Police.
More than 1300 cases have been tainted by her informing, which helped Victoria Police jail numerous gangland criminals including Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.
It has long been flagged Gobbo intended to sue the force over her identity as an informer being exposed by the Herald Sun in 2014.
But since the High Court decision to make public her informing history in December and March, 2018, Gobbo has been in exile.
Victoria Police has been footing Gobbo’s bills since, even when though she attempted to avoid giving evidence to the commission.
It is not the first time Gobbo has sued the force.
In 2010, just a week after Williams was murdered in jail, she took police, then chief Simon Overland, former chief commissioner Christine Nixon and the state government to court.
Both Gobbo and Williams were witnesses against ex detective Paul Dale and veteran hitman Rod Collins over the execution murders of Terence and Christine Hodson.
Victoria Police paid for dozens of flights and protected Gobbo in Bali during 2009 in the lead up to the court case.
They even bought her Pink tickets and paid her VRC membership.
Gobbo was considered a reluctant witness and was launching a legal battle at the time to stay out of the witness box.
When Williams was murdered in Barwon Prison, the Hodson case collapsed but Gobbo won a multimillion-dollar payout regardless.
Labor Police Minister Bob Cameron signed off on a $2.88 million cheque to Gobbo, which included extraordinary conditions.
Among them was not to be called as a witness again by Victoria Police. Months later, they tried to.
Gobbo considered suing Victoria Police in 2014 when the Herald Sun exposed her informing role.
It is understood she refrained from doing so while Victoria Police fought for years to bury her role as a snitch through the courts.
Gobbo was a registered informer on three separate occasions in 1995 and 1999 and a more prolonged stint from 2005 to 2009.
She was codenamed HS 3838 in her last and most significant informing stint.
MORE LAWYER X COVERAGE
1300 LEGAL CASES MAY HAVE BEEN TAINTED BY GOBBO