Suspicious cop watched Lawyer X

A former detective became so suspicious of ‘Lawyer X’ that she was put under surveillance.

A former detective with the Puran­a taskforce became so suspicious­ of “Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo’s dealings with Melbourne underworld clients that she was put under surveillance.

Former investigator Gavan Ryan told a royal commission that he felt Ms Gobbo’s relationship with her clients “went beyond­ that of a normal barrister and client” well before she became a registered police informer.

“From time to time, Ms Gobbo would be observed in multiple surveillance operations, which made it appear that she was passing­ information between different­ persons of interest,” Mr Ryan said in a statement to the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.

“This made me suspicious of her and I thought that her relationshi­p with her clients went beyond that of a normal barrister and client. I was so suspicious of her that, in late 2003 or early 2004, we briefly put her under surveillance. I only recall having her under surveillance once.

“However, before and after this, she would continually show up when we had surveillance on others. I continued to be suspicious of Ms Gobbo and her connections with the underworld.”

More than a year later, Mr Ryan said, he was told by another­ Purana detective that Ms Gobbo wanted to provide inform­ation.

“I recall a discussion with Detec­tive Sergeant (Stuart) Bateson about Ms Gobbo,” he said in the statement. “He came into my office and stated that Ms Gobbo seemed to want to provide information about the underworld.

“I was very dubious as I had the opinion that she was very close to Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. I was worried she could be a double agent.”

He said he recommended that Ms Gobbo should be introduced to the unit handling informers, then known as the dedicated source unit, as “it was their job to assess and register her as a source if she was found to be suitable”.

Mr Ryan later learned she had been registered as a police inform­er, and told the commission last week about how she faced questions during a secret hearing of the now defunct Office of Police Integrity that could have exposed that role.

One of the members of the source-handling unit, known by the pseuodonym Officer Paige, told the commission yesterday he declined to be Ms Gobbo’s handler as he had previous dealings with her, but was “astounded” that she was used as an informer.

He said he was “dismayed to a degree” that the underworld lawyer became a registered informer used by the source development unit, after a request to pursue a lead in the investigation into the 1991 murder of Karmein Chan, 13.

“That job was not approved because they believed the person who was providing the initial informati­on … (wasn’t) a person of integrity and they were tainted,” Officer Paige told the commission. “So I found it astound­ing that management would approve a job with an underworld solicitor going after drug dealers when we had a chance, possibly, to catch a child murderer.”