Drug trafficker Jan Visser says Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo tainted tomato tin ecstasy case
A drug trafficker jailed for his part in one of the world’s largest ecstasy hauls will make his bid for freedom by trying to argue his case was tainted by Lawyer X and he “wasn’t one of the main players” in the busted drug plot.
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A drug trafficker jailed for his part in one of the world’s largest ecstasy hauls argues that his conviction was tainted by Lawyer X and that he should be set free.
Jan Visser, sentenced to 11 years’ jail for conspiring to bring into Australia more than 15 million ecstasy pills in tomato tins shipped from Italy in 2007, argued in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that he was robbed of a fair trial.
Visser, representing himself`at the two-day hearing, said the prosecution case against him was “malicious”.
He said the Commonwealth’s Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Federal Police failed to meet their obligations to disclose that barrister Nicola Gobbo was a police informer.
He said it was Gobbo’s handing over of a ship’s bill of lading — revealing where the ecstasy would be delivered at the Melbourne port — which she had “improperly obtained” that secured dozens of convictions.
The bill of lading was inside an envelope that his co-offender Rob Karam had asked Gobbo to keep safe.
Without Karam’s permission, Visser said Gobbo had opened the envelope and photocopied the document, before giving a copy to her Victoria Police handlers.
If he had known of all that, he would have had the evidence dismissed at trial, or even called Gobbo to give evidence, Visser said.
He dismissed suggestions by Justice Robert Osborn that calling her could have been “a huge forensic risk” to himself, as she then could have revealed what she knew about him. Visser claimed “she had no idea who I was”.
Visser also referred to “a truckload” of information before the royal commission into the management of police informants, and discussions Gobbo had with her police handlers about how she knew what she was doing was wrong — and that if uncovered, convictions could be overturned.
Barrister Rowena Orr, QC, for the Commonwealth DPP and AFP, said neither agency had knowledge of Ms Gobbo’s involvement in the prosecution and therefore could not have disclosed the information to Visser.
She said it was Victoria Police who had withheld that information from the AFP, in a move Justice Osborn remarked was “troubling” as it was a joint police operation.
Ms Orr also noted Gobbo had never represented Visser. The appeal continues.
The appeal continues.