Roberta Williams claims double-crossing lawyer Nicola Gobbo told Carl corrupt cops were out to kill him
Gangland widow Roberta Williams claims doublecrossing lawyer Nicola Gobbo told Carl corrupt police had discussed executing him, in an explosive claim at the Lawyer X Royal Commission.
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Double-crossing lawyer Nicola Gobbo told gangland war lord Carl Williams that corrupt police had discussed executing him, his widow Roberta has claimed to the Lawyer X Royal Commission.
In an explosive submission to the inquiry, Roberta says their barrister Gobbo — aka police informer Lawyer X — warned them of a murder plot in early 2004.
Gobbo had months earlier secured Williams bail over charges of threatening to kill an officer in the Purana anti-gangland task force.
A potential hit at a football oval was among the plots the duplicitous barrister detailed to Williams, according to his ex-wife.
That was at the height of Melbourne’s gangland war, which saw 36 underworld figures executed as the Moran and Williams clans sought to wipe each other out.
Separately, in 2001, Roberta claims police also discussed dumping Williams’ body in a shipping container “where no one would find him”.
And she alleges that corrupt cop Wayne Strawhorn — convicted for drug trafficking — attempted to extort Carl for $20,000 a month.
The claims have not been tested.
Roberta has also revealed to the Herald Sun that she is considering suing Gobbo, insisting her late husband would still be alive had the lawyer not conspired against him.
A key Lawyer X royal commission report has asserted that Gobbo may have contaminated Williams’ case by giving him legal advice, while informing against him, before he pleaded guilty to three murders in 2007.
In March that year, Gobbo reported to police that Williams had spoken to her “to discuss details of his plea” and had “stated that he is prepared to give evidence”.
Gobbo was doublecrossing Williams from the early-2000s.
She played a role in convincing one of his assassins to change his story over the 2003 murder of hot dog vendor and drug dealer Michael Marshall.
In a letter to Victoria Police, Gobbo claimed her work “turning’’ this hit man was “the crack in the damn (sic) wall of silence that led to a flood’’.
The assassin initially claimed to police that it was a debt collection gone wrong, but his lawyer Gobbo intervened to convince him to admit it was a premeditated hit.
He then changed his police statement regarding the murder of Marshall, shot in front of his child, in order to secure himself a good deal.
The original statement was never disclosed.
The importance of the assassin-snitch — whose identity is suppressed — was underscored when then Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland visited him in jail.
The snitch was not charged for his role in other murders and it is understood he may have already joined another gangland grass back on the streets, or be due out soon.
The Herald Sun has also been told that police information reports made by Gobbo’s handlers chronicling her informing, contain tip-offs from the lawyer about Williams as he stood trial over Marshall’s murder.
In the lead up to the trial, which led to Williams’ conviction, the commission further heard that his legal conferences were being recorded in jail.
The phone of his solicitor Zarah Garde-Wilson was even tapped.
And Roberta says Gobbo gave her “dodgy legal advice”, leading to a six month prison stint over drug dealings in 2004.
“It is my belief that Gobbo was working under Victoria Police instructions to ensure that I was imprisoned, to put pressure on Carl Williams, my husband; with the aim of endeavouring to secure him as an informer into police corruption, as his daughter, Dhakota, would be without her mother and father,’’ she has stated to the commission.
Williams abruptly cut a deal with prosecutors in 2007, pleading guilty to three more killings — of Jason and Lewis Moran and Mark Malia.
Roberta says he took the fall to stop conspiracy to murder charges being laid against his father George and herself.
By then, he had already told associates in letters from jail that he thought Gobbo was a “dog’’ — slang for informer.
He was furious, as they had been so close that in December 2003 she gave the speech at the christening of daughter Dhakota at Crown Casino.
After his plea, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
In April 2010, Williams was bashed to death in Barwon Prison by another inmate Matthew Charles Johnson.
Roberta says police used Gobbo as a weapon and regardless of his guilt or otherwise, they infringed on his right to a fair trial.
“It is to my belief that the conduct of Gobbo led to a ‘substantial miscarriage of justice’ in the criminal cases involving Carl Williams,” Roberta states.
“It is to my belief that the conduct of Gobbo led to the murder of Carl Williams.”
She added to the Herald Sun: “If Carl was given fair trials, he wouldn’t have been found guilty. He would still be alive. He shouldn’t be six foot under. If she (Gobbo) hadn’t been involved, no way. Carl would have been home to walk his daughter down the aisle.’’
Police argue, however, the henchmen who gave evidence against Williams would have done so regardless, sustaining convictions.
READ MORE:
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GOBBO A SUSPECTED ACCESSORY IN THREE GANGLAND MURDERS
WHY MOKBEL’S BID FOR FREEDOM ONE STEP CLOSER
LAWYER X: INSIDE AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST GANGLAND SCANDAL
Explosive new revelations and exclusive extracts from gripping new book Lawyer X, by Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, only in your HERALD SUN this weekend.
Lawyer X, the story of how one woman played off police and criminals, is published by HarperCollins Australia on September 7. SPECIAL OFFER: For a limited time, enter the code LAWYER at checkout at booktopia.com.au to receive a 30% discount off the RRP. Offer ends midnight AEST Sunday 6 September.
Live online Q&A with authors Dowsley and Carlyon, hosted by Sky News’ Peter Stefanovic, on their battle to expose the truth. Send questions to ask.lawyerx@news.com.au and watch at facebook.com/TrueCrimeAustralia/ 6:30pm AEST, Sept 9.
Watch Peter Stefanovic’s compelling two-part documentary Lawyer X: The Untold Story on Sky News at 8pm AEST, Sept 12 & 19.