Carl Williams killer Matthew Johnson files appeal against murder conviction

The man sentenced to life for killing Melbourne underworld kingpin Carl Williams is appealing the murder conviction after more than a decade.

Matthew Johnson stalks Carl Williams in prison,

Matthew Johnson is a decade into a minimum 32-year prison sentence for bludgeoning drug kingpin Carl Williams to death but the killer with links to the Lawyer X scandal has launched a surprise appeal and is listed to appear on Wednesday in the Supreme Court.

Johnson was caught on CCTV approaching Williams inside a common area in a high-security unit at Barwon Prison, near Geelong, before striking his baby-faced cellmate eight times with part of an exercise bike.

He then dragged his body back to his cell, where it was found about 30 minutes later by prison guards.

After spending much of the past decade quietly doing his time for the slaying of the central figure in the Melbourne gangland war, Johnson has launched a bid for freedom.

The grounds for his appeal are not known but are expected to be detailed at Wednesday’s court hearing. There is speculation within legal circles that it is linked to Nicola Gobbo, the underworld lawyer dubbed Lawyer X who was recruited by police to spy on her clients.

Jailed drug smugglers such as Pasquale Barbaro, Frank Madafferi and Saverio Zirilli have launched appeals claiming Gobbo was their lawyer and they were enticed into criminal conduct by the barrister-turned-informer.

Drug kingpin Carl Williams

Johnson also had an association with another lawyer and informal police informant, Joseph Pino Acquaro, who was slain outside his restaurant, Gelobar, in Brunswick east in 2016.

Acquaro spoke to detectives several times about some of his clients but was never formally registered by police.

Johnson argued at his trial that his explosion of brutality directed at Williams in 2010 was motivated by self-defence and he should be found not guilty. His version of events was dismissed and he was found guilty and jailed for life, with a 32-year minimum.

At his sentencing, judge Lex Lasry rejected Johnson’s self-defence plea after the prisoner told the court Williams — behind bars for murder and drug trafficking — was planning to kill him with a sock full of billiard balls.

Justice Lasry said Williams’s murder was the result of “some meaningless underworld prison code” and the motive for the hit was because the jailed kingpin was assisting police in an investigation into the 2004 murder of Terrence and Christine Hodson.

He noted that Johnson was recorded by prison authorities discussing Dale’s case on the phone, including a reference to being pleased Ms Gobbo was not going to give evidence.

Johnson reportedly had copies of Williams’s statements.

Boasting more than 150 convictions prior to the Williams hit, Johnson led a gang called Prisoners of War inside Barwon that targeted inmates who assisted authorities.

Matthew Johnson

Williams in 2007 signed a statement implicating former drug squad detective Paul Dale and high-profile hitman Rodney Collins over the murders of the Hodsons, who were shot at their unit in the east Melbourne suburb of Kew.

The statement to the Petra Taskforce — established to investigate the Hodson murders — included allegations that Lawyer X acted as a conduit between Mr Dale and Williams and the former detective had asked the drug lord for a hitman.

Mr Dale was charged over the murder of the Hodsons but the charges were dropped after the Williams slaying.

Mr Dale strenuously denied the allegation and said criminals would say anything for less jail time and the wheels of justice had turned slowly, culminating in the royal commission into Ms Gobbo’s relationship with Victoria Police in 2019.

“Nothing of Williams’s statement was corroborated — it was complete and utter incompetence to let these charges get before the courts,” Mr Dale told The Australian on Tuesday.

“I believe if there had been a competent investigator — someone like Ron Iddles or Charlie Bezzina — capable of standing up to (then assistant crimes commissioner Simon Overland), it wouldn’t have happened.”

At the royal commission — sparked by a Herald Sun investigation — into her double life as criminal barrister and informant, Ms Gobbo said Johnson had at one point been her client and the inquiry heard she paid him a visit at Barwon in the middle of 2009 but no record was kept.

She said one of her clients hired Johnson to kill his drug trafficking co-accused but the hitman went to the wrong address.

Williams was murdered following newspaper reports he was assisting police.