Lawyer X inquiry: Nicola Gobbo was warned former commissioner Simon Overland would ‘burn’ her
Nicola Gobbo says she received some ‘fatherly advice’ from leading detective Ron Iddles about former Victorian Police Commissioner.
- ‘Iddles warned Overland would burn me’
- How Gobbo learned of Moran’s murder
- ‘I never spent the night with Tony … ever’
- Gobbo ‘preyed on by cops’
Welcome to today’s blog of the Lawyer X Royal Commission. Disgraced gangland lawyer-turned-police snitch Nicola Gobbo’s evidence at the royal commission into her informing has continued, with more stunning revelations. Here’s how the day unfolded.
Remy Varga 5.15pm: Wrap of the day’s key evidence
As Jason Moran’s children watched their father’s murder in Melbourne’s suburban northwest, Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo was hitching a ride with Tony Mokbel to the airport to meet her mother.
Giving evidence for the second day at the royal commission into the management of police informants, Ms Gobbo moved quickly to dispel any suggestion she and the drug kingpin were enjoying sleepovers together.
“For the record I never spent the night at Tony’s apartment ever, so — nor he in mine, ever,” she said.
And so the underworld soap opera continues, with the commission attempting to clarify the blurred the lines between Ms Gobbo, Victoria Police and the brutal gangland war that horrified Melburnians in the mid-2000s.
Delayed at the airport before the overseas trip with her mother in June 2003, Ms Gobbo was phoned by a man in relation to the Auskick execution-style slayings of Moran and Pasquale Barbaro.
“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.” Ms Gobbo told the commission.
She said she didn’t think much of the call until she was later contacted by Victoria Police as detectives believed the man may have been seeking an alibi in her.
Ms Gobbo has admitted her behaviour was “wrong” but said the information was squeezed from her as both Victoria Police and her gangland clientele applied pressure.
“I was so far off the right track and out of my depth and out of control,” she said.
When counsel assisting Chris Winneke QC put to Ms Gobbo that her stroke in 2004 — a year before she became registered informant — represented the “perfect opportunity” for her to jumpship from her supergrass life, she replied: “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 doing the same level of intensity or conversations that I had beforehand.”
Jumping forward to a 2009 Bali trip, Ms Gobbo said she was warned then Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland would “burn her” by widely-respected detective Ron Iddles.
“The last thing Ron Iddles said to me was not to be a witness,” she said.
“He said Overland would burn me and not to trust him.”
Ms Gobbo said she took the warning as “fatherly advice”. More troubling of her evidence on the Bali trip is how a confession from a career criminal for the murder of self-proclaimed vampire Shane Chartres-Abbott made its way into her statement without her or Mr Iddles knowledge.
“I have never signed it, and I’ve never seen a final version of this statement, s’ she said.
The royal commission is the closest Ms Gobbo has come to facing justice for her misdeeds as Lawyer-X, but her face can’t be seen by the public, only commissioner Margaret McMurdo.
The disembodied voice of the former lawyer only wavers when talking about her children.
“Do I regret it?” she said.
“Yes, everyday.”
Remy Varga 3pm: I regret my actions everyday: Gobbo
Gobbo is now finished giving evidence for the day.
As she winds up, she is asked if she regrets her actions.
Ms Gobbo replies: “Everyday”.
The former gangland lawyer has will return to the inquiry on Thursday morning
Remy Varga 2.55pm: Double life continued despite Gobbo stroke
Ms Gobbo says she didn’t walk away from her double life after she had a stroke in July 2004 because doctors recommended she return to the same activities.
Mr Winneke put to Ms Gobbo that her stroke represented the “perfect opportunity” for her to could have stopped representing Melbourne’s underworld while snitching on them to Victoria Police.
Ms Gobbo replied: “After I recovered the ability to speak again I was told by my neurologist that he couldn’t tell how much damage stroke had done without me doing the same thing.”
Ms Gobbo said she wasn’t trying to make excuses.
Remy Varga 2.17pm: Vampire gigolo murder statement shock
Ms Gobbo says information relating to a murder was inserted into a statement without her knowledge.
Ms Gobbo’s draft statement was taken in Bali by former detectives Ron Iddles and Stephen Waddell, who were investigating the murder of vampire gigolo Shane Chartres Abbott.
“I’ve never seen this statement,” she said.
“I have never signed it, and I’ve never seen a final version of this statement.”
In the draft statement, which was never put to a jury, former drug dealer Mark Adrian Perry, not only confessed to arranging the murder but allegedly told Ms Gobbo a career criminal known as Jack Price carried out the hit.
In his statement to the royal commission, Mr Iddles said he was “astounded” to learn the alleged confession had been inserted into the statement without his knowledge.
Remy Varga 1.15pm: ‘Iddles warned Overland would burn me’
Ms Gobbo says she was warned she would be “burned” by Simon Overland and to be careful of the then Victoria Police Chief Commissioner by a leading detective.
Ms Gobbo said Ron Iddles gave her the “fatherly advice” in 2009 when the detective travelled to Bali to take her statement in relation to the murder of self proclaimed vampire gigolo Shane Chartres-Abbott.
“The last thing Ron Iddles said to me was not to be a witness,” she said.
“He said Overland would burn me and not to trust him.”
Remy Varga 12.30pm: How Gobbo found out Jason Moran was dead
Ms Gobbo said when she waiting at the airport 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, I just can’t recall now exactly the detail he told me,” she told the commission.
Ms Gobbo said she didn’t realise the significance of the phone call until later when she was contacted by the police.
“Unbeknown to me the police wanted to know, um … 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,” she said.
Remy Varga 12.20pm: ‘I never spent the night with Tony … ever’
Tony Mokbel dropped Ms Gobbo off at the airport to meet her mother on the morning of the infamous AusKick murders, when gangland figures Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro were slain execution-style in front of a van full of children in North Essendon in June 2003.
The double murder took place in front of children at a footy clinic.
“I lived not far from him (Mokbel) and I can recall being stuck at the airport for hours because our flight was delayed,” Gobbo said of Mokbel giving her a lift.
When Mr Winneke asked Ms Gobbo if she’d spent the previous night with Mokbel, she said: “For the record I never spent the night at Tony’s apartment ever, so — nor he in mine ever.”
Remy Varga 11.50am: Push to discredit potential murder witness
Ms Gobbo says Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams summoned her to a cafe in Port Melbourne and attempted to persuade her to discredit a potential witness in a murder.
“Because they had a view — particularly Carl — that he was a weak and pathetic human being and that he would roll,” she said.
“Their planned 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.
“So that if he became a witness, they could discredit him.”
Remy Varga 11.20am: ‘Out-of-depth’ Gobbo gave notes to Dale
Ms Gobbo said she handed over meeting notes with disgraced drug squad detective Paul Dale to detectives investigating the 2004 murder of Terrence and Christine Hodson.
She said she shouldn’t have handed over the notes, which related to a conversation the pair had after Dale was charged with burglary in 2003.
“I was so far off the right track and out of my depth and out of control,” she said.
The charges against Dale were later dropped.
Ms Gobbo told the commission she slept with the then drug squad detective twice.
11am: ‘I knew snitching was wrong’: Gobbo
Nicola Gobbo says “of course” she knew snitching on her criminal clients to Victoria Police was wrong but says her actions were driven by the desire to help detectives.
Telling the royal commission into the management of police informants on Wednesday that she didn’t want to make excuses, the former gangland lawyer said she felt intense pressure to live up to the expectations put on her by Peter De Santo, then a detective in the Ethical Standards Department, in 2003.
“It was a desire to help Mr De Santo … I know it sounds pathetic but … live up to his expectations and the pressure I felt he’d out on me,” she said.
“I was also being pushed in the background by Tony Mokbel.”
Ms Gobbo became a registered informant two years later in 2005 at the height of Melbourne’s gangland wars. The former high profile barrister was representing underworld heavies including Tony Mokbel while at the same time snitching on them to Victoria Police.
When counsel assisting Chris Winneke QC asked Ms Gobbo if she knew at the time what she was doing was wrong, Ms Gobbo said: “Yes of course I did.”
In her statement tendered to the royal commission, Ms Gobbo said she did not inform on the “large majority” of her clients.
“I did not inform on the large majority of the clients I represented,” she said. “They were represented to the best of my ability and often received favourable outcomes.”
She also criticised suggestions that she was promiscuous.
“Allegations about my personal life, many of them blatantly false, have been the subject of extensive media reporting for a protracted period. My privacy has been invaded comprehensively, but the picture that has been painted of me is far from the truth in many respects.”
Much of the seven-page statement was focused on her illnesses and her claims that it has been difficult for her to prepare for her testimony – despite the commission running for nearly a year.
“I appear to give evidence with the intention of assisting the Royal Commission as best I can,” she said in the statement.
“However, I do so without having has (sic) the opportunity to prepare properly.
“I have not reviewed the evidence of other witnesses beyond a few selected sections of transcript and redacted statements and I have not had access to primary documents (including my own court books and diaries) or my work laptop. I have been unable to refresh my memory from this material.”
She also said she had limited time to look at the transcripts of conversations she had with her handlers.
“However, it was not possible to review those documents or discuss matters with my counsel until last week given my remote location and difficulty accessing secure material,” she said. “I also had little time to consider the material due to my personal circumstances.”
10.30am: Gobbo ‘preyed on’ by cops
The Lawyer X Royal Commission is hearing evidence for the second day from Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo, less than 24 hours after she told the court she was preyed on by the “master manipulators” of Victoria Police.
The supergrass claimed her naivety saw her fall victim to smooth talking detectives.
Giving evidence at the royal commission into the management of police informants on Tuesday, Ms Gobbo said disgraced drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn flattered her into disclosing information over coffee meet ups in south Melbourne in 1998.
Ms Gobbo said she was simultaneously petrified and impressed by Mr Strawhorn, who she said coaxed information out of her in a “manipulatory, predatory fashion”.
More Coverage
Ministers briefed on threats on ‘case-by-case basis’: AFP
Commissioner Reece Kershaw and senior AFP staff are speaking at a joint parliamentary hearing in Canberra following Anthony Albanese allegedly being left in the dark about the caravan terror plot.
Albanese didn’t know of caravan plot ‘for at least seven days’: Dutton
Peter Dutton has alleged in question time on Wednesday the Prime Minister didn’t receive a briefing on the caravan bomb plot 'for at least seven days' after NSW Premier Chris Minns had been briefed.