Lawyer X: Stephen Asling plans appeal over killing of Carlton Crew member Graham Kinniburgh
A jailed underworld figure aims be the second man freed from a murder conviction over concerns of evidence tainted by Lawyer X, barrister turned police informer Nicola Gobbo.
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The killer of Carlton Crew member Graham “The Munster’’ Kinniburgh is hoping to be the second man freed from a murder conviction over concerns of evidence tainted by Lawyer X.
Jailed underworld figure Stephen Asling is aiming to mount an appeal on the basis that the criminal supergrass who gave evidence against him was linked to barrister turned police informer Nicola Gobbo.
Kinniburgh, a close mate of Mick Gatto, was shot outside his Kew house on December 13, 2003.
Asling was charged with the murder of Kinniburgh more than a decade later and found guilty of the ambush shooting in March, 2017.
His appeal attempts were dismissed last year.
The supergrass — a Carl Williams hitman — was the key witness against Asling.
He was among the first gangland figures to break the criminal underworld’s code of silence as the gangland war imploded.
Gobbo, in a letter to police in 2015, took credit for breaking the underworld code by “rolling’’ a key gangland figures, which became the “crack in the dam wall of silence that led to a flood’’.
Other clients of Gobbo’s would also “roll’’ after realising they were in a “dire situation’’.
In 2006, the supergrass made a statement implicating Asling in the Kinniburgh murder. He was one of three jailhouse informers who testified against Asling.
Significantly, the supergrass told police he was involved in facilitating an agreement between Asling and criminal Terrence Blewitt to kill Kinniburgh on behalf of Williams.
He also added that he was present when another hit was plotted between Williams, Asling and Blewitt — the murder of Lewis Moran.
He said when Asling and Blewitt failed to kill Moran, they were contracted to kill Kinniburgh.
Williams then recruited another team to kill Moran at the Brunswick Club in 2004.
Asling’s lawyers will argue there are links between the witness and Gobbo, which were not known before the Lawyer X scandal erupted.
The supergrass negotiated a heavily discounted prison sentence as part of a deal to give evidence about gangland murders.
If Asling is able to reignite his appeal, he hopes to be the second man found guilty of a gangland murder to have his conviction overturned, following the release of Faruk Orman in July this year.
LAWYER X DECLINES POLICE PROTECTION
SOURCES SUSPECT GOBBO KNEW ABOUT KILLINGS
Lawyers for Asling are curious as to whether Gobbo was key in influencing the killer to make a statement against their client over the Kinniburgh murder.
Asling is serving a life sentence with a 27-year minimum.
Barrister Paul Smallwood, who represented Orman, has taken on Asling’s case.
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