Lawyer X: Nicola Gobbo to keep her face from public view during royal commission testimony

The former gangland lawyer won’t have to show her face at the royal commission scrutinising her double dealings with Victoria Police.

Nicola Gobbo appears on ABC’s 7:30 last year.

Nicola Gobbo won’t have to show her face at the royal commission scrutinising her double dealings with Victoria Police after her legal team succeeded in suppressing her image.

Despite giving an interview with the ABC in which her image was broadcast on national television less than two months ago, Ms Gobbo won’t be visible when she gives evidence at the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants on Tuesday.

Commissioner Margaret McMurdo issued a direction on Monday that Ms Gobbo will be seen only by her when the former gangland lawyer gives evidence via videolink, which won’t be livestreamed.

“I direct that, at this stage, Ms Gobbo’s image during her evidence to the royal commission be recorded but not be streamed or publicly available,” she said.

“And that only I see her image whilst she is giving evidence.”

Ms Gobbo’s lawyer, Rishi Nathwani, backed by Victoria Police, applied to have the barrister’s image suppressed in a closed hearing of the royal commission on Monday.

The reasons behind suppressing Ms Gobbo’s image were unknown and were contained in confidential affidavits given to the commissioner but included a statement by Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson.

Ms McMurdo ordered Ms Gobbo, who has yet to give a statement to the commission, to give evidence in December last year despite her legal counsel ­arguing she should be exempt due to physical and psychological illness.

Mr Nathwani said then that his client “cries most days”.

Just weeks after her bid to avoid giving evidence failed, the ABC broadcast an interview with Ms Gobbo in which she said she was living in fear of her life from rogue members of Victoria Police.

Ms Gobbo was a high-profile criminal defence barrister whose face was splashed across newspapers and television when she represented underworld heavies including Tony Mokbel at the height of Melbourne’s gangland wars in the mid-2000s.

She was simultaneously providing information on her clients to Victoria Police, with the royal commission already identifying scores of cases that may have been tainted by her double ­dealings.

Saul Holt QC, who is representing Victoria Police, said on Monday that Ms Gobbo’s evidence would be the “pointy end” of the royal commission.

“We are dealing with a witness who will touch on and deal with matters which will go to the heart of the questions and what findings are made against Victoria Police,” he said.

Faruk Orman was released in July after spending more than a decade behind bars for his alleged role in the 2002 murder of hitman Victor Peirce. The case against Mr Orman was circumstantial and relied on evidence given by clients of Ms Gobbo.