Almost 100 people claim their cases were tainted by Gobbo
Almost 100 people, including crime lord Tony Mokbel and convicted drug trafficker Rob Karam claim their cases were tainted by the police use of Lawyer X.
Police & Courts
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Almost 100 people who claim their cases were tainted by the police use of Lawyer X are still in jail, the Herald Sun can reveal.
Many of those are still serving sentences which they believe should be reviewed because their lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, was a secret supergrass.
Other prisoners have returned to jail for subsequent offending but have historical matters which they also believe are tainted.
It is understood high profile defendants who have launched appeals against their convictions include crime lord Tony Mokbel, convicted drug trafficker Rob Karam, mafia boss Pat Barbaro and others convicted over the massive “Tomato Tins” drug importation who may also have had their cases tainted by Gobbo’s activities.
The key to Mokbel’s case is that Gobbo gave him advice, for which he paid her $1800, about the lawfulness of his extradition from Greece, where he was found in 2007 after famously fleeing the country.
Gobbo passed information about Mokbel onto her police handlers.
It comes as the royal commission into the management of police informants went to the Supreme Court yesterday seeking to relax gag orders relating to the saga. More than a dozen lawyers, representing 62 defendants, took part in the proceeding yesterday, which was about unravelling countless suppression orders police are fighting to keep active.
The commission believes the complicated gag orders make it impossible to write a clear narrative about the Lawyer X saga.
The report is due to be handed to the State Government in November before being made publicly available.
The gag orders prevent the public knowing about secret deals Victoria Police brokered with criminals in return for their evidence.
Police argue their position is to protect the safety of the individuals under suppression orders.
Under the gag orders it is a crime to identify, or tend to identify, the individuals.
But the suppression orders widely protect the identities, images and histories of a range of murderers, drug dealers and thugs from being exposed to the public. The matter at the Supreme Court was adjourned yesterday and is expected to be resolved next month.
GOBBO ADMTIS INFORMING ON CLIENTS WAS WRONG