Victoria Police handler’s fears for making Gobbo double-agent

A police handler refused to take on Nicola Gobbo, “astounded” she’d been recruited as an informer.

A Victoria Police investigator has told how he was “dismayed” Nicola Gobbo became a registered informer. Picture: News Corp

A handler of police informers refused to take responsibility for “Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo and was “dismayed” and “astounded” that she was used to bring down underworld figures, a royal commission has heard.

In 2005, the Victoria Police investigator who can only be identified by the pseudonym Officer Paige was approached to either be handler or co-handler of Ms Gobbo but declined the offer, due to previously dealing with her during a child prostitution case and having met her at a social gathering.

He told the royal commission into the management of police informants this morning that 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 1991 murder of 13-year-old Karmein Chan.

“That job was not approved because they believed the person who was providing the initial information, that they weren’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.”

He said he was also concerned about her safety and the “double agent factor”, as it was well-known that Ms Gobbo would “socialise and fraternise among people in the underworld”.

“We would then be exposing her to our methodology,” he said.

“My concern was more about her wellbeing as well as the ethical issues.”

He said the killings of underworld informers Terence and Christine Hodson also raised the risk that Ms Gobbo may be harmed if used to provide information.

“That was my greatest concern,” Officer Paige said.