Full Answer
During media coverage of the scandal in 2018 and 2019, Gobbo's identity was subject to a suppression order, and she was referred to in the media only as Lawyer X or Informer 3838. The suppression order was lifted in December 2018 when it was reported that she had represented convicted criminals, Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel . [1]
Lawyer X identified as Nicola Gobbo after court lifts suppression order on Informer 3838 Share Article share options Share this on Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Send this by Email Messenger Copy link WhatsApp Lawyer X identified as Nicola Gobbo after court lifts suppression order on Informer 3838 By Sarah Farnsworth
Lawyer X’s identity will be revealed on March 1. The identity of Lawyer X, also known as Informer 3838 or EF, was meant to be made public on February 5 following a ruling last December by the High Court that found public interest outweighed the perceived threats to her safety.
Nicola Gobbo — known as Lawyer X — who defended Melbourne gangsters, has “signed her own death warrant” a new documentary claims. Nicola Gobbo represented some of Melbourne's biggest gangsters, but also was a police informant.
Nicola GobboNicola GobboNationalityAustralianOther namesLawyer X, Informer 3838Alma materUniversity of MelbourneOccupationLawyer4 more rows
Richard DaviesInformer 3838 (TV Mini Series 2020) - Richard Davies as Kevin 'Juicy' Jucirovic - IMDb.
2Informer 3838 / Number of episodes
"Rick [Richard Davies, who plays fictional character Juicy] and I shot a dancing sequence that was very fun and they let us dance for a lot longer than we were prepared to dance — no one choreographed the dance, I'll just say.
The ABC has learned Nicola Gobbo returned to Australia in 2019 while she was living in hiding. Ms Gobbo flew in to Queensland and travelled by car to her destination in Victoria. Lawyer Tim Tobin SC says he helped Ms Gobbo return to Victoria.
Police would later have numerous targets in the murder investigation, with many criminals suspected of having a motive to kill Mr Hodson, given his drug dealing and police informing. Police eventually narrowed their investigations in on one suspect, Paul Dale, who they alleged may have ordered the murders.
Over two feature-length episodes, the story of Lawyer X was told – parts of it were on the money, the rest missed its mark. Lawyers Weekly broke down the real story behind Nicola Gobbo and her decade spent informing on the criminals while playing against the police.
Watch Informer 3838 | Full Season | TVNZ OnDemand.
The decision was based on the Director of Public Prosecutions' concession that a substantial miscarriage of justice occurred when Ms Gobbo acted as Orman's lawyer and also encouraged a gangland turncoat to become a witness against her own client.
As well as Mokbel's appeal, several men convicted over what's known as the tomato tins ecstasy bust are also appealing, notably Frank Madafferi and Rob Karam. Karam gave Ms Gobbo shipping documents that identified a container of tomato tins travelling from Italy to Melbourne that had 15 million pills hidden inside.
Ms Gobbo's lawyers told the royal commission there was material suggesting two current Supreme Court judges and former heads of public prosecutions at a state and federal level knew, at the very least, Ms Gobbo was acting in conflict. "The only lawyer who was scrutinised and criticised was Ms Gobbo," they said.
Former defence barrister Nicola Gobbo can now be revealed as Lawyer X, the police informer at the centre of a 15-year legal scandal that risks overturning the convictions of dangerous underworld criminals. Key points:
Ms Gobbo believes most criminals just wanted the piece of paper with her name on it as proof. In Supreme Court proceedings, Inspector Brooke Hall , who assessed the lawyer's vulnerability in 2016 said threats had already been made by Melbourne identity Mick Gatto and Tony Mokbel's brother, Horty Mokbel,among others.
It would later be revealed Ms Gobbo wore a wire for police in 2008 to record a conversation with Mr Dale in which she quizzed him about the murders. A coroner found in 2015 there was not enough evidence to conclude Paul Dale was behind the Hodson murders. AAP: Julian Smith.
The ABC understands that over time several judges and lawyers pulled the barrister aside to warn her she was getting too close to her clients. However the legal fraternity's suspicions that she was in too deep intensified when she was called as a witness in the murder trial of disgraced detective Paul Dale.
In 2015, then-state coroner Ian Gray found he was "not satisfied that Mr Dale asked Mr Williams to arrange the murder of Terence Hodson"and he had "serious reservations" about the credibility of other criminals who had implicated Mr Dale. Ms Gobbo said her involvement in the Hodson case ended her career.
Rob Karam was convicted of high-level drug trafficking and will likely remain in jail until he is 70. Supplied. Mr Gatto and the gang known as the "Carlton crew" were listed by Ms Gobbo as being "a work in progress" in a list of cases she claimed to have assisted police with.
Before it was believed she was first registered in 2005. Royal Commissioner Malcolm Hyde’s time in Victoria Police overlapped with the time of Lawyer X’s first time as an informant, which has the potential to be a conflict of interest.
Judges expect lawyers before them to put two things first: their client and the courts. They expect lawyers to disclose conflicts of interest and they also expect the government in criminal cases to disclose anything of importance to people being prosecuted.
Jeremy Gans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
A person charged with a criminal offence or a party to a civil proceeding has the right to have the charge or proceeding decided by a competent, independent and impartial court or tribunal after a fair and public hearing. Australia’s High Court has said the same for decades.
The courts will never tolera te a criminal defendant’s lawyer secretly helping the opposing side in a trial. That’s why the High Court said late last year that what Lawyer X and the police did “corrupted” the prosecutions of her clients and “debased” the criminal justice system.
Anthony Dowsley has been a crime reporter with the Herald Sun since 2004. He has covered unsolved homicides, law and order issues and police corruption. He broke the Lawyer X story in 2014, despite court action by Victoria Police. He is recognised as the driving force for subsequent Lawyer X inquiries, culminating in the royal commission into police informants, which began in 2019. He was recognised for both these investigations with the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.
Patrick Carlyon has been a senior features writer at the Herald Sun for a decade. He has won two Walkley Awards for feature writing: one for his coverage of the Black Saturday fires, the other for his account of a war medic in Afghanistan. He and Anthony Dowsley shared the Gold Quill award, among other awards, from the Melbourne Press Club in 2018 for their investigation into Nicola Gobbo.
Melbourne’s gangland war is usually said to have begun with the murder of Alphonse Gangitano in 1998.
Karam has already begun legal action challenging his conviction because of Lawyer X’s role as an informant, and Mokbel, who had previously exhausted all avenues of appeal, is expected to follow suit.
Lawyer X met with a detective on the Purana taskforce, which was investigating the gangland war, six times and provided information in “the strictest confidence”.
Between 1995 and 2009, Gobbo was a registered police informant, whilst also working as a defence lawyer for many of Melbourne's organised crime figures. She passed to Victoria Police information about her clients whilst representing them, leading to the prospect of many convictions being overturned. During media coverage of the scandal in 2018 and 2019, Gobbo's identity was subject to a suppression order, and she was referred to in the media only as Lawyer X or Informer 3838. The suppression order was lifted in December 2018 when it was reported that she had represented convicted criminals, Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. On 3 December 2018, the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews ordered the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants. As part of its inquiry, the Royal Commission examined the number of, and extent to which, criminal cases may have been affected by the conduct of Gobbo. The Commission was due to report to the Government in July 2019; however, as the inquiry proceeded it became clear that this timeline was not achievable. In May 2019 the Commission received $20 million in additional funding and a twelve-month extension to July 2020.
Gobbo's partner is Richard Barkho; the couple have two children. As of March 2019.
Gobbo was a witness against Paul Dale, a former policeman accused of corruption. She asserted that Australian authorities have not fulfilled assurances made to her about protecting her safety. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation repeated that Gobbo asserted she had received death threats due to her planned testimony.
Nicola Gobbo — known as Lawyer X — who defended Melbourne gangsters, has “signed her own death warrant” a new documentary claims. Nicola Gobbo represented some of Melbourne's biggest gangsters, but also was a police informant. Source:Supplied.
The ‘Lawyer X’ scandal has rocked Victoria’s police and legal establishments and prompted a royal commission into the state police force’s conduct during the Melbourne gangland war and its dealings with informants. Ms Gobbo is expected to appear before the commission.
Nicola Gobbo trod a line between the police in Victoria and the gangsters. Picture: ABC TV. Source:ABC. Nicola Gobbo with gangster Carl Williams at his daughter Dhakota’s christening party at Melbourne's Crown Casino in 2003. Source:Supplied.
See all newsletters. Mr Hodson was implicated in a 1993 robbery of a drug house and was due to testify against former Victorian drug squad detective Paul Dale. Mr Hodson was Ms Gobbo’s client, and she was in a relationship with Paul Dale.
At the time she was registered, Gobbo was representing Mokbel in relation to the Mexican cocaine charges. Mokbel was alleged to have masterminded the 2000 shipment and provided about $100,000 to fund it, and was on bail. His trial started in December 2005, with Gobbo acting as junior counsel.
Less than a month later Gobbo was registered as informant 3838. A Victoria police risk assessment completed in November, about two months after her registration, emphasises her importance. “Within a short time, the Source has provided credible and valuable intelligence to police,” it reads.