Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo launches bid to give evidence against State of Victoria from secret location

Nicola Gobbo has requested to give evidence from a remote location with her image hidden from public view as she sues the State of Victoria.

Barrister turned informant Nicola Gobbo will give evidence remotely with her image hidden from public view as extra security measures are taken in her lawsuit against the state.

The former gangland lawyer, 51, is suing the State of Victoria for compensation, alleging Victoria Police induced her into providing information about her clients and her safety was endangered after it was revealed she was Lawyer X.

The state is defending the lawsuit, claiming Ms Gobbo chose to become an informant with full appreciation of the risks involved.

On the opening day of her Supreme Court trial, lawyer Jessie Taylor said in the six years after her identity was revealed, Ms Gobbo was painted as a manipulative traitor who sold out her clients.

The state is defending the lawsuit, claiming Ms Gobbo chose to become an informant with full appreciation of the risks involved. Picture: Supplied

But she said the evidence would show that was not the case.

“The most common question people ask about Nicola Gobbo … is why?” she said in her opening address on Monday.

“The answer is bleedingly obvious — because she needed help, because she was stuck, because at 25-years-old ... she found herself neck deep in an underworld she didn’t understand until it was too late.”

Ms Taylor said Ms Gobbo became underworld figure Tony Mokbel’s “golden girl” because she was able to get his associates bail on serious drug charges.

But as their lawyer-client relationship grew, the court heard Ms Gobbo felt “immense pressure” from Mokbel and was unable to escape.

Ms Taylor said Ms Gobbo described her breaking point coming in August 2005, when she was ordered to tell a Mokbel associate to keep quiet after his arrest.

“She was 100 per cent looking for a way out of that environment,” she said.

“She was in a pressure cooker — she was in way over her head.”

Realising the predicament she was in, Ms Taylor said officers from Victoria Police’s source development unit drove her to a roof top carpark in Footscray promising they could get out from under “Mokbel’s thumb” if she became an informant.

“This was a prized catch for those seeking to dismantle the gangland wars,” she said.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard Ms Gobbo was expected to attend her trial in person to testify. Picture: Supplied

Ms Gobbo allegedly told police there was “nothing you could do” to protect if her identity were revealed, but the SDU promised no information she provided would be attributed to her.

Ms Taylor said in an “extraordinary exchange”, SDU officers told Ms Gobbo she had to divulge everything she knew about her clients otherwise she risked her life.

For the next four years they were in daily contact, she said.

Despite the assurances, Ms Taylor it took less than 24 hours for police to break their promise after details of their meeting were recorded in the diary of a senior SDU officer.

Earlier, another member of Ms Gobbo’s legal team, Tim Tobin SC, revealed his client would not be attending court due to “security issues”.

Ms Gobbo will instead give evidence remotely via video link with her image hidden from the court’s public gallery and livestream.

Mr Tobin asked Ms Gobbo not be required to state her location, while also hinting her appearance had changed since she was last seen in public.

“The image your honour will see is not the image that has been published on other occasions,” he said.

Justice Melinda Richards said arrangements could be made so she could only be seen by those at the bar table and the bench.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard Ms Gobbo was expected to attend her trial in person to testify.

Ms Gobbo, who was registered as a police informer three times in the 1990s and early 2000s, provided information about her underworld clients while she was acting for them.

A royal commission later found her conduct could have affected more than a 1000 cases, with some former clients including Mokbel successfully appealing their convictions in the wake of the scandal.

Trial openings will continue Tuesday.