Lawyer X: Nicola Gobbo ‘unfit due to relationships, drugs’
A detective assessed Nicola Gobbo as unfit to be a police informant in July 1998.
- ‘Unfit due to relationships, drugs’
- ‘Loose cannon’ Gobbo didn’t co-operate
- Paterson dodges recruitment questions
- Delay prompts police grilling
The opening day of the public hearings into the Lawyer X scandal has ended. Read how it all unfolded below.
Remy Varga 4.37pm: Hearings end for today with Purana taskforce
The royal commission wraps up for today with a discussion of the Purana Taskforce which was created in response to Melbourne’s lethal gang wars.
Ms Gobbo represented notorious drug kingpin Tony Mokbel at the same time she was feeding information about him to detectives.
The commission continues tomorrow.
Remy Varga 4.22pm: Lawyer X’s money laundering information ‘unhelpful’
Ms Gobbo provided information on her former employer relating to money laundering and fraud, the royal commission has heard.
The investigation into her former employer began on the 28 May, around two weeks after she was registered as an informant.
Her information was assessed as unhelpful and her former employer was never charged or even interviewed by police.
Her informer status was deactivated around October 1999.
Assisting counsel Winneke QC said Ms Gobbo had also represented a client of her former employer who was busted in a drug sting.
Assistant Commissioner Paterson was unable to confirm this.
“Assuming she was, at that stage providing information to the drug squad … to the asset recovery squad against her former employer and information against her former clients,” Mr Winneke QC said.
Remy Varga 3.59pm: Application failed to mention Gobbo’s job
An application to register Ms Gobbo as an informer made by Victoria Police in 1999 made no mention of her occupation as a criminal lawyer.
The application, shown at the inquiry into police informants, was made by officer Jeffry Pope and checked by officer Gaven Segrave on May 13 1999.
The officers say Ms Gobbo may be able to provide information about fraud and money laundering.
She was given registration number MFG13.
The application also did not mention her criminal record.
Remy Varga 3.44pm: Gobbo ‘unfit due to relationships, drugs’
A detective assessed Ms Gobbo as unfit to be a police informant in July 1998 because “she was a solicitor … that she was too overt in her desire to provide information to police, her relationship with some officers was in appropriate … [and she] held drugs for one of the persons connected to her firm,” the royal commission has heard.
Assistant commissioner Paterson agreed these were valid concerns.
Remy Varga 3.16pm: Paterson’s knowledge of taskforce ‘minimal’
Assistant commissioner Paterson is unable to say whether Petra Taskforce detectives sought legal advice on using a criminal barrister as a source.
Assistant Commissioner Paterson said he assumes officers involved would have been aware of Ms Gobbo’s job but described his knowledge of the taskforce as “minimal”
“There are four very large folders and I have not had the time to receive the material,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Paterson said he only received the documents on Friday.
Remy Varga 3.02pm: ‘Loose cannon’ Gobbo didn’t co-operate
Retired assistant commissioner Jack Blaney described Ms Gobbo as a “loose cannon” because “she was making her own arrangements and not co-operating with investigators” in a note made around March 1996, assisting counsel Winneke QC said.
The newly-recruited informant was going to assist police with an undercover drug sting.
Assistant commissioner Paterson said it seemed Mr Blaney did not consider Ms Gobbo reliable.
“She wasn’t considered reliable enough for investigators to proceed.” he said.
The operation was cancelled.
Remy Varga 2.47pm: Gobbo’s intentions ‘pure’
The royal commission has heard detectives assessed Ms Gobbo’s intentions to assist police as an informant as pure.
Assisting counsel Winneke QC and assistant commissioner Paterson agree a willing informant’s motives need to be assessed.
“Relevant matter to consider understanding motive may display risks with human source, understand and question the motive … whether it’s a true motive or not.” Assistant commissioner Paterson said.
Remy Varga 2.31pm: Paterson dodges recruitment questions
The royal commission sparked by Lawyer X has resumed.
Assistant counsel Winneke QC is grilling Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson over the delay in informing the RC about Ms Gobbo’s involvement with police in the early 90s.
Assistant Commissioner Paterson was involved with the now disbanded Bendigo steering committee which oversaw the risks associated with Ms Gobbo, and is now on the Landow steering committee in which he has some responsibility for the supergrass’ ongoing safety.
However, he is not drawing on personal knowledge in his submission which has instead been compiled through research and interviews with relevant Victoria Police officers.
He therefore is not able to answer some specific questions about her recruitment.
Chip Le Grand 1.51pm: Delay prompts police grilling
Victoria Police discovered in June last year that Nicola Gobbo’s involvement as police informant stretched back longer than previously understood but failed for another six months to tell prosecutors, the state’s justice department, any of her clients or the Royal Commission about it.
The delay in informing the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants drew a series of sharp questions on the opening day of public hearings into the Lawyer X scandal.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson, the senior officer in charge of the intelligence and covert support command, said the relevance of Ms Gobbo first being registered as an informant in 1995 when she was still a law student “wasn’t apparent to me”.
Mr Paterson told the Commission that a legal stoush between Victoria’s police and state and commonwealth prosecutors had been focused on Ms Gobbo’s conduct as an informant between 2005 and 2010, when she was high profile defence barrister representing some of Australia’s most notorious criminals.
An internal police investigation last year discovered archived material which recorded Ms Gobbo’s registration a decade earlier. Mr Paterson was told of this by email on 4 June, 2018.
Counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Chris Winneke QC, asked Mr Paterson why he didn’t pass this information on to the Royal Commission until 26 January this year.
“I didn’t place any great significance on that 1995 registration,’’ he said.
Commission chair Margaret McMurdo reminded Mr Paterson that the Royal Commission was established to uncover the extent to which Ms Gobbo’s work as a informer had impacted on any criminal prosecutions.
Mr Winneke, in outlining the evidence that Mr Paterson and other police witnesses will provide over the next two weeks, said the Royal Commission had identified about 600 cases that had potentially been impacted by the involvement of Ms Gobbo.
He said that 33,000 documents had been received by the commission and thousands more were expected. A total of 90 submissions has been made, including 35 by people concerned that their prosecutions may have been tainted by Ms Gobbo.
Mr Winneke said priority would be given to those cases where people were in custody. A special working group of police, prosecutors and Royal Commission staff has been established to work through the backlog of cases and documents.
Mr Winneke said the Royal Commission had been frustrated by delays in the provision of documents by police and that full co-operation was “fundamental’’ to the Royal Commission completing its task.
Mr Paterson will continue to give evidence today.
Remy Varga 1.20pm: Probe targets Gobbo recruitment
The royal commission has adjourned and will return at 2pm.
Counsel assisting the commission Christopher Winneke will probe assistant commissioner Paterson over the recruitment of Ms Gobbo as a supergrass.
Remy Varga 1.15pm: Gobbo’s 1995 registration not ‘relevant’
Police notified the Office of Public Prosecution of Ms Gobbo’s 1995 registration as a source six months before the royal commission, the inquiry into police use of informants has heard.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson said police were focusing on notifying former clients of Ms Gobbo and her previous registration wasn’t “relevant”.
“My recollection is when I was told back in June 2018 the relevance of that 1995 registration wasn’t apparent … the reason I was on the Bendigo steering committee … My activities related to the safety of Ms Gobbo,” he said.
“It was well known the 1995 registration was known … based on my knowledge the 1999 registration was not relevant to the approach,” he said.
Remy Varga 12.13pm: Paterson takes to witness box
After a brief recess the inquiry has resumed.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson from Intelligence and Covert Support Command is about to take the witness box.
The top cop will give evidence of Victoria Police’s involvement with Ms Gobbo from a 26-year period.
Remy Varga 10.53am: Gobbo’s role ‘ended in 2010’
Assistant Counsel Winneke said Ms Gobbo’s involvement with Victoria Police ended on 27 August, 2010, after former commissioner Simon Overland told officers he would no longer accept information from her.
Remy Varga 10.50am: Royal commission larger than expected
The royal commission into police informants will examine more than 600 cases involving former criminal defence barrister Nicola Gobbo.
Inquiry Assistant counsel Chris Winneke QC said Ms Gobbo had been registered as a police informant three times: in 1993, 1995 and 1999.
Ninety submissions have already been received by the inquiry, including 35 from individuals who believe their criminal proceedings may have been tainted by the former supergrass.
The royal commission had already received 33,000 documents — some numbering hundreds of pages — and is expected to receive thousands more.
Remy Varga 9.55am: Royal commission to begin
The royal commission into the management of police informants is due to start any minute.
Journalists, lawyers and police are shuffling into a room on level six of the Fair Work Commission in inner Melbourne.
The royal commission was sparked after Lawyer X, unmasked as high profile criminal defence barrister Nicola Gobbo, informed on her clients including drug kingpin Tony Mokbel and gangland figure Carl Williams.
The first witness to give evidence at the royal commission into police use of informants will be Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson from Intelligence and Covert Support Command.
The inquiry will run public hearings for two days and a number of current and former members of Victoria Police will give evidence.
Known to police as “Informer 3838”, Ms Gobbo was first recruited in 1995 and worked with police until 2009.
By her own admission, her information helped convict hundreds of gangland criminals and drug traffickers.
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