Nicola Gobbo told Simon Overland would burn her

Nicola Gobbo was warned ‘Simon Overland would burn’ her by a homicide detective.

Lawyer X barrister Nicola Gobbo. Picture: ABC

Nicola Gobbo was warned “Simon Overland would burn” her by one of Victoria’s most experienced ­detectives shortly after being asked to provide a statement to police.

The barrister-turned-informer told the Lawyer X royal commission that then homicide detective Ron Iddles, who was sent with a colleague to Bali in 2009 to take a statement from her, said she should not trust the then chief commissioner, Mr Overland. That statement was later changed to claim that Ms Gobbo told Mr ­Iddles and Detective Inspector Steve Waddell that a suspect had confessed to ordering the murder of vampire gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott and named the hitman, the inquiry heard.

Both Ms Gobbo and Mr Iddles have told the commission no such information was provided.

In her statement to the commission, Ms Gobbo said she ­assumed “it must have been added by DI Waddell, but that is a matter for him to answer”.

The alteration of the statement is expected to be heavily scrutinised by the royal commission and could result in a criminal ­investigation.

Ms Gobbo said after the draft statement was done, Mr Iddles provided her with “fatherly ­advice” to not trust Mr Overland.

“The last thing Ron Iddles said to me was not to be a witness,” Ms Gobbo told the commission.

“He said Overland would burn me and not to trust him.”

Along with that Bali statement, there was a later Overland-led push for Ms Gobbo to become a prosecution witness against former ­detective Paul Dale.

On Wednesday, Ms Gobbo also detailed more about her ­relationship with drug kingpins Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams, describing how the former drove her to Melbourne airport on the morning of the murders of Jason Moran and Pasquale ­Barbaro at an Auskick clinic in 2003.

She said she received a phone call from someone, who cannot be named, about the murders.

“He rings to tell me have I heard the news that there’s been a murder … And that Jason Moran’s been killed … Um, he may have said it was at Auskick,” she told the commission.

“Unbeknown to me, the police wanted to know … wanted to confirm that I’d spoken to him and how long it had been for and they wanted my phone records because it had something to do with an alibi for him.”

Following another murder the same year, Ms Gobbo said she was “summoned” to a meeting with Mokbel and Williams at a Port Melbourne coffee shop to discuss the arrest of two men, one of whom she had already visited. “They were concerned that one of those accused would roll, because they had a view — particularly Carl — that he was a weak and ­pathetic human being and that he would roll,” she said.

“Their grand plan was for me to see him and ensure that he did not make a statement or assist police, and that if he went down that path to obtain a psychiatrist report that would show that he was insane or could not be relied upon.”

Asked by counsel assisting, Chris Winneke QC, whether Ms Gobbo knew as early as 2003 that she was doing the wrong thing in her double-dealings, she said: “Yes, of course I did.”

She said she did not stop such dealings after she had a stroke in 2004 — which Mr Winneke suggested was a “perfect opportunity” to do so.

“After I recovered the ability to speak again, I was told by my neurologist that he couldn’t necessarily ascertain how much damage the stroke had done unless or until I was … having the same level of ­intensity of conversations that I had beforehand.”

The inquiry continues.