Nicola Maree Gobbo: Gangland barrister turned police informer sues for damages after outing

A former barrister for some of the country’s most dangerous underworld figures claims police took advantage of her vulnerability to turn her into an informant.

Gangland barrister turned invaluable informer Nicola Gobbo was young, vulnerable, and fearing for her life when she was groomed by a cadre of police, her lawyers have claimed.

The 51-year-old former lawyer is suing the State of Victoria for damages over the way she was handled as a police informant at the height of a bloody underworld war. 

On Monday, the opening day of her estimated four-week civil trial, Ms Gobbo’s legal team set out a timeline of how she became embroiled in what would later become one of Victoria’s biggest legal scandals.

Gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo was outed as a police informer. Picture: Supplied/ ABC News

They told Victoria’s Supreme Court that in the six years since she was outed as an underworld turncoat, Ms Gobbo has been painted as a self-obsessed and manipulative traitor, but that would not be borne out by the evidence.

Instead Ms Gobbo’s legal team painted a picture of the youngest woman in the state’s history to be admitted to the bar who was lonely, isolated, and erratic when the “might and machinery” of the police force took advantage. 

“At 25 years of age she found herself neck deep in an underworld she didn’t understand until it was too late,” barrister Jessie Taylor said.

Shortly after going into solo practice, the court was told Ms Gobbo became underworld figure Tony Mokbel’s “golden girl” due to her ability to get his associates bail when they faced serious drug charges.

Barrister Jessie Taylor is representing Ms Gobbo. Picture: NewsWire/ Liam Beatty.

Over the following few years, Ms Taylor said her “naive” client’s relationship with the underworld boss grew beyond the usual lawyer-client relationship.

She explained Ms Gobbo was exhausted, emotional, and under enormous pressure when she was approached in September 2005 by Purana Task Force officers who were desperate to stem the bloody gangland war. 

The court was told Ms Gobbo was taken to the rooftop of Footscray Market’s car park, where she made it clear she was looking for a way out. 

In recordings of the meeting, Ms Taylor said Ms Gobbo said she felt she could not end her relationships with Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams due to “tactic and subtle intimidation”. 

“She was in a pressure cooker — she was in way over her head,” Ms Taylor said. 

“Her vulnerability was blatantly obvious to Victoria Police.”

Ms Gobbo is represented by barrister Tim Tobin SC (right). Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

Ms Gobbo was taken on as an informant and handed over to officers within the newly-formed source development unit, the court was told. 

“The reality is I’m dealing with someone who scares me ... If he found out about it, there’s nothing you could do to help me,” Ms Taylor said Ms Gobbo told police. 

According to her lawyers, Ms Gobbo was given explicit assurances she would never be outed as an informant and that information she provided would be screened to ensure it could never be attributed to her. 

Less than 24 hours later, her lawyers said, that promise was broken. 

Her team promised new evidence “that has not seen the light of day” - despite a Royal Commission - would be tendered to the court. 

By April 2006, the court was told an internal review had concluded there was no way to know how many officers knew Ms Gobbo was informing.

Former Victoria Police Commissioner Simon Overland has been named in the lawsuit. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Gobbo’s legal team will continue their opening address when the case resumes on Tuesday, followed by a response from counsel for the State of Victoria. 

The court was told Ms Gobbo is expected to give evidence on Wednesday with a series of protective measures enacted to ensure her safety.

She will be giving evidence over a video link, barrister Tim Tobin SC said, with vision only available to Justice Melinda Richards and lawyers at the bar table.

Mr Tobin hinted her appearance has changed since she was last publicly seen in late 2019.

“The image Your Honour will see is not the image that has been published on other occasions,” he said.

Ms Gobbo has been in hiding since she was exposed as a police informer, known as informant 3838 or Lawyer X, in December 2018 after a High Court ruling.

She is suing the state for damages allegedly sustained in the fallout of her unmasking, alleging she was “induced” to become an informer and was owed a duty of care.

In defence, the State of Victoria submits she provided information voluntarily, but argued if Ms Gobbo provided confidential information it was her conduct that was unlawful.

Much of the court time on Monday morning was taken up by preliminary matters, including Justice Richards throwing out a subpoena made by Ms Gobbo’s legal team to the Office of Public Prosecutions.

Ms Gobbo represented, and became friends with, several high profile underworld figures including Carl Williams. Picture: Supplied.

They had sought all documents produced by former High Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle KC in his capacity as a Special Investigator appointed to investigate Ms Gobbo and the police.

Justice Richards said she was not persuaded there was a legitimate forensic purpose for the documentation and labelled the subpoena “oppressively broad”.

Ms Gobbo was registered as a police informer three times in the 1990s and early 2000s, passing along information about underworld figures, some of whom she also represented.

In 2020, the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants found more than 1000 convictions could have been tainted by Ms Gobbo’s involvement.

Originally published as Nicola Maree Gobbo: Gangland barrister turned police informer sues for damages after outing