Nicola Gobbo: Lawyer X | Australian Crime Stories | S4E03

foreign can you hear me Miss Cobo yes I can she's the name on everyone's lips Nicola Gobo is missing piece in the jigsaw the lawyer who wanted it all I've been asked to make a special thank you one of her key clients was Carl Williams how close was their relationship that was very close to timing the cops and the drug lords for 15 years this is the biggest scandal in Australian criminal history without a shadow of a doubt Adam Shan goes behind the headlines she was a friend of yours she was a friend to reveal a story of murder drugs and abusive power how deep was the breach of trust absolutely total betrayal [Music] for 127 days so far the Royal commission into the management of police informants in Victoria held public hearings this Royal commission was about one Informer in particular Nicola gobo the Barrister who turned in former and everyone wanted to see her but nicolagabo loved to be the center of attention so she kept us all waiting until the final days of the hearing to make her appearance are you going to take the oath or the affirmation uh at the Earth yes all right then when under threat of jail Nicola Garbo finally appeared it was via video link Gobo feed for her safety if her face was shown I swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give the only one to see her was Royal commissioner Margaret McMurdo but at last some of what gabbo knew and why she took down her own clients was revealed the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you most of the crooks that Gobo informed on deserve to be in jail and I struggle to have much sympathy for them but what matters to me are two unsolved murders from the period when the Barrister was operating as in former 3838 let's firstly re-examine the 2003 murder of Shane chartres Abbott we investigated this last year but there were some big unanswered questions including the identity of an undercover operative the police used we now know that this was Nicola Gobo The X Factor in a botched investigation that's cost taxpayers more than 30 million dollars with no result a male prostitute murdered outside his Reservoir home this morning had been described in court as a self-proclaimed vampire and accused of ripping out the tongue of a woman this was no ordinary murder the victim Shane shartrus Abbott was a male escort for three years the police investigation went nowhere but in 2006 there was a breakthrough who was the prisoner who cryptically wrote vampire on the palm of his hand we still can't name him for legal reasons last year in our report we referred to him as the author and so he shall remain [Music] the author is a career Criminal Who was serving a life sentence in barwin jail when he confessed to the murder of Shane shatra's Abbott strangely when the police took the author's confession they allowed him to face the wall instead of facing the camera I decided to help eliminate a person whom I regard as an animal and a danger to other females it was a Revenge killing but why would the author confess and how does Nicola govo fit into this story you have to go back to Melbourne in the mid 2000s a man whose body was found in a Brunswick Strait on Saturday night may be the 25th person to die in Melbourne's Gangland War the Gangland war was in its final throes most of the bosses in their paid killers were in jail awaiting trial Victoria Police was under immense pressure to get convictions so these criminals would never see the light of day win jail was used as a pressure cooker to turn criminals into informers they were locked down 23 hours a day often in solitary confinement and visits from family and friends were limited for a long time some of the heaviest gangsters in the country had no idea that their Barrister was double crossing them it was a Brazen and audacious betrayal I'm David McCullough and I spent 13 years and four months in Bowen prison for a crime you didn't commit for a crime I didn't commit in that occasion yes David mccullick watched his Royal commission very closely as a former inmated barwon he observed first hand gobbo's movements within the prison we met with him just before he was deported from Australia after submitting evidence of corruption in his case there's a pretty strict system how people come into Bowen as lawyers to see their clients what happened in her case she would come in to see one particular client and would be given access to several clients nothing recorded off the record yes and what would be the purpose of those multi-client meetings it was sure that she could have access to those that she was those inmates she was trying to turn for a Vic poll become informers against other inmates Garbo was a regular visitor to the author in Bowen prison before he made a statement confessing to the chartress Abbott murder in 2006. over the next six years he made a total of seven statements well in a lot of ways with the Royal commission has shown is that Nicola Gobo was The Missing Link she was running information from the author to her police handlers her police handlers were filing that information into police it became this circular exchange of information which helps to explain why his story changed quite substantially over a number of years Victoria needs an independent broad-based anti-corruption commission and we call on the Victorian government to establish such a commission in order to avoid growing calls for a royal commission into police corruption police chose to believe the authors constantly changing story which incriminated serving in former Victoria police officers in the chartres Abbott murder Gobo played a leading role in this dubious process she was a friend of yours she was a friend and I socialized with her as a friend they were tasking her to come and see me provide me with false information and pretend that she was giving me legal advice David Waters had history with Victoria Police he was charged with a ripoff of a drug dealer while still in the job after being found innocent of that charge he was trying to rebuild his life when the author an old enemy of his made up a big lie about him the author claimed that after he killed Shane chartres Abbott in 2003 he gave the murder weapon to David Waters he said Waters kept it for three days before the author took it back and threw it in Port Phillip Bay this was a highly dubious claim and Nicola Gobo was enlisted to massage it into fact [Applause] [Music] so Dave we're on Racecourse Road Flemington what's the significance of this location in late 2009 early 2010 Nicola Gobo came to me and said she had some information that the author had made a statement that was in that by that time that it implicated me further in the murder of Charter sabot and he had alleged that after the murder he'd come here that morning straight after and handed me the gun so I was apparently meant to be here at the hotel or within the vicinity of it where were you actually Dave I was in moonee ponds I was at a place called pointon's Nursery foreign 's Nursery in Mooney ponds has nearly three kilometers from the pub on Racecourse Road this is where it actually was on the morning that I was allegedly at Racecourse Road at the same time so not in racecourse Road not in Flemington not picking up a gun no picking up a latte in here with members of the city of moonee Valley who I was working for at the time we had a meeting in relation to the next schedule of works for the next month in 2010 Waters was running an earth-moving business as he had been since the chartres Abbott murder his only mistake telling Nicola Gobo the truth when she came to see him miraculously your statement appears by the author 2012 he said he had some things to do which required him driving to The moonee Ponds Junction so they have changed his statement his movements to move him towards where I was and Nicola gobo's role as the undercover agent in all this is to massage those two stories to get them closer together going back and forth to you trying to get them somewhere where they're close the whole strategy failed you weren't charged I wasn't charged any and the whole thing fell apart it was just ridiculous from the outset the case by the author with the help of Gobo collapsed when he recanted key evidence at his supreme court trial in 2014. so where did that leave Dave Waters David also for this period Nicola Gobo was your legal counsel she was your friend but she thoroughly double-crossed you and put you in the frame for a murder look the further this goes on the more that's revealed from the Royal commission it's just becoming an absolute Act of bastardry when you you know like I've held back a fair bit with my emotions in relation to this but it's just betrayal and it wasn't for the involvement of Victoria Police particularly the Briars task force and the um hierarchy she would never have been able to do it Dave Waters wasn't the only one whose reputation was brought into question Peter Lalor who was a serving detective was hounded from the force in 2009 after the author claimed that Layla and Waters were working together to assist him in the murder to this day they remained suspects though they have never been charged if they had have charged us and we had been in the Supreme Court in 2014 we would have exposed what's coming out at the Royal commission now because we would have got all those documents there would have been no reason to hide them from the defense and what would have happened you would have had this Royal Commission in 2015-16 and some of these members of the Briars Petra and piranhas task force would be starting their incarceration now this would have been done and dusted because gobo's name would have come out of what have come out it would have been obvious foreign [Music] we always knew there was something crook at the center of this case Nicola Gobo is the missing piece in the jigsaw we can see now where this thing went so wrong this was the most expensive mess Victoria Police ever got itself into the decision to pursue innocent men to deflect political pressure over the Gangland war was ill-founded and the chartres Abbott investigation from promising Beginnings ended in total failure Layla and Waters have never been exonerated over the Charter's Abbott murder do you see yourself any closer now to getting exoneration I do um we ourselves will be moving in a certain direction and we've got legal advice in relation to that compensation I think so but whatever it takes we'll get there because nobody is going to stand up in the courts now and defend these actions we've suffered and there's no doubt about that and a lot of other people have been put through hell over this but the important thing is to go back to what this was all about and it was a murder a bug was murdered in his front yard it was a solvable homicide but they've undermined the whole murder investigation perverted it and turned it into a you know a vehicle for their own perverse agendas I was really it's a wretched outcome to this entire episode it's difficult to see how you could go back now and and get any kind of a clean run at solving this case ultimately it's just denied to the family of XX foreign I'm going to leave the last word on this to Sandra Gibson one of the last people to see Shane chartres Abbott alive she was his counselor and confidant it was Sandra Who convinced me to search beyond the headlines and discover the truth I feel like I've given you false hope Sandra I'm sorry for that oh look I probably knew that this is probably as far as we could get because I mean you're talking about the xenos of power the justice system please politicians I mean I just think the whole sanctity of the system has been blown out of the water and I think this is just you know a nail in the coffin really have the Injustice in the whole system [Music] coming up she's always been a very different cat gobbo's double life and her drug dealing boyfriend she probably shouldn't have gone into the into the family business foreign 's Gangland War claimed more than 30 lives between 1998 and 2006. Victoria police would have you believe that they brought peace to the streets through hard work and Innovative investigation techniques but that's not quite how it happened the truth is police made a desperate deal with a barrister Nicola Gobo who agreed to inform on her underworld clients breaching the bond of secrecy between lawyer and client the seeds of her double dealing were sewn well before the Gangland War even began in 1972 Nicola Mary gobble was born into a legal Dynasty her uncle was a Supreme Court judge and a Victorian Governor her cousin is a QC and her estranged sister Catherine a commercial lawyer at school she was known as bright and studious with ambitions to become Prime Minister but her life followed a very different direction she's always been a very different cat even in her days as a law student she was living with a drug dealer in a notorious drug house in 1993 while she was still at University Gobo was charged with drug trafficking after a police raid on her Carlton sharehouse uncovered 1.4 Kilograms of amphetamines she gave up two flatmates to police including her boyfriend and they went to jail but no conviction was recorded against gobo instead she was registered as a police Informer in 1995. people often say that she was a lawyer who turned to the dark side but what came out in the Royal commission was that she was a crook first who became a lawyer is that fair to say yes I mean she comes from a very famous Melbourne family of lawyers but she probably shouldn't have gone into the into the family business gobbo's double life as an Informer stroke Barrister continued off and on for 17 years until 2010 but her true identity was not revealed until 2019. good evening the identity of lawyer X who snitched on high-profile Gangland clients can finally be revealed as Former Defense Barrister Nicola Gobo she had a double life representing Gangland clients like Carl Williams and Tony mockbel all the while informing on them to police for the journalist who broke the story it's been a five-year battle to reveal the biggest legal scandal in Victorious history there are people out there who may not know that their cases have been tainted or in fact they've their court cases were somewhat of a fraud you got the story of this time if not all time thank you lawyer X when did you first become aware of the story it was around about the summer of 2013 2014 she had some contact with police and she'd been through a civil claim working out what was behind the Writ and what was behind her motivations there was a lot more to her and that's what I ended up finding out you obviously take your concerns to Victoria Police we called them on the day that we were going to publish and within hours we were being taken to court trying to work out what we could and couldn't print the next day and that went on for a week and that ended up going on for five years thank you the fight went all the way to the high court which Finally Revealed Garbo was lawyer X within hours Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews had called a royal Commission [Music] Nicola Gobo has finally given evidence to the lawyer X Royal commission revealing she couldn't say no to detectives who wanted information from her for many gobbo's appearance was an anti-climax it seemed the commission just needed Gobo to confirm what they already knew that she played dual roles as Barrister and consort to criminals who she later informed on and by doing this she may have broken the law and you're aware that by turning up and providing advice to him you were in effect doing things which would have a tendency to pervert the course of Justice potentially well you were aware of that weren't you that that could happen yes this is the biggest scandal in Australian criminal history without a shadow of a doubt police can't operate without public confidence so this is this really narrow Blue Line we're only 15 000 coppers in Victoria if they don't have the confidence of the public they can't basically do their day-to-day work and this strikes at the absolute heart of it what went wrong inside Vic pole I mean where was the adult in the room didn't anybody see that this was going to end up in this situation I think it was such a tantalizing Prospect to have someone come over walk across that line and tell them the things that they probably knew to be true but to lay it out for them and it would have been like a bit of a drug once they got a little bit of a taste of what she could offer the information was so good and so accurate that it was hard to give up so she kept on being able to make a comeback because she enjoyed it she enjoyed informing she enjoyed the intention you know looking back with hindsight um my level of emotional maturity was hopeless and you know as pathetic as as it is for me to admit I did derive some um self-importance and some feeling that I was you know relevant or validated by reason of being wanted by people like Tony next gobo's connection to murder the bodies were found by the couple's son in their living room at six o'clock last night and her ultimate betrayal I would never have gone near her with a 40-foot pole if I had a known she was a police Informer I first met Nicola Gobo in the summer of 2003 just as her informing was ramping up I wanted to meet her client Carl Williams who was killing the most powerful Crooks of Melbourne she agreed to deliver a letter on my behalf and on her recommendation I got the interview within a few months Williams was facing life in jail courtesy of Nicola Gobo I've been asked to make a special thank you you could say three cheers three cheese one of her key clients was Carl Williams who you knew before prison and also in prison as well how close was their relationship I was very close but when she had a relationship with someone she seemed to have a capacity to make it appear that that person was the only person in her life Gobo also had Tony mock Bell on her books she worked just as hard for him often getting him bail against the odds the second case I've long followed relates to when Williams and mock Bell were working together in 2003-4 it's my belief they were both connected to a heinous double murder in the Melbourne suburb of Q I also believe Nicola Gobo knows more than she's letting on about this crime I'm talking about the execution style slang of Terry and Christine Hodgson forensic teams have been at the East Q residence all morning piecing together Clues to the murder of a husband and wife in their home the bodies were found by the couple's son in their living room at six o'clock last night there were no signs of a struggle the pair appear to have died from gunshot wounds to the Head the murders of Terry and Christine Hodson are still reverberating through the corridors of Justice in Melbourne Christine was collateral damage killed because she was a witness to Terry's murder as a long time police informant Terry Hodson Was A Marked Man eight months before his murder he was caught robbing a drug house at Oakley in Melbourne South West with one of his police handlers detective Sergeant David Michel Michelle's boss detective Sergeant Paul Dale was said to have masterminded the theft of more than a million dollars in cash and drugs which belonged to underworld Kingpin Tony mockbel before his murder Hodgson had refused an offer of witness protection from the police brokered by his lawyer Nicola gobo was also representing Tony mockbel whose drugs and cash Hodson had stolen Hudson was also a well-known police Informer it was remarkable he'd survived this long the police never went after mock Bell for the Hudson murders their Prime Suspect was Paul Dale who was accused of being behind the Oakley drug house burglary with fellow officer David Michel when Hodson was killed in May 2004 Michelle had agreed to give evidence against Dale over the burglary on the advice of his lawyer Nicola gobo at the same time gobbo was also the lawyer for mock Bell and Carl Williams this is nine years with Peter hitchener good evening a supreme court jury has heard explosive allegations that Carl Williams organized the murder of police Informer Terence Hodson for former detective Paul Dale in statements Williams made to police he claimed he was paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for arranging the hit with Carl Williams as a witness Victoria Police believe they had enough to charge Dale with the hots and murders after years of being a suspect today Paul Dale officially became an alleged killer we're nearly five years down the track it's been a very long complex and difficult investigation officers from the Petra task force arresting the former drug Squad detective at his wangaratta service station this morning Nicola gobo's role in the arrest of Paul Dale played out in this Albert Park Cafe in December 2008. at the behesta Victoria Police she wore a listening device she steered the conversation quizzing Dale about his relationship with Carl Williams and his conversations with the police and what he may have left out Dale thought he was talking to his friend his lawyer not an undercover agent asking him about his case and what police are doing with him and he's divulging to her that he's being questioned by the Australian crime Commission she takes all that back and on the basis of that that gets them over the line to charge him with a murder I told the Royal commission he had no idea of gabbo's relationship with Victoria Police I would never have gone near her with a 40-foot pole if I had known she was a police Informer she goes beyond being a snitch she goes beyond being a double dealer to actually being an undercover operative for Victoria Police that's exactly what she was and so in a sense she's at a completely different level to all the other supergrass witnesses that were used by police to sort of crack open the Gangland Wars and to and to get convictions over the line she's in much deeper than the rest of them in terms of what she's willing to do for Victoria place and you know the crazy thing being of course that this is at the expense of many other clients at the time in an interview with the ABC 730 report that went to where before gobo's appearance at the Royal commission she spoke of the Hodson murders did you know who the hodsons were going to be murdered absolutely not detectives suspected that you were partly responsible for the leak of his Informer status before his death the whole world knew that he was an Informer the fact that he was murdered wasn't a great surprise the way it happened appalling and shocking definitely but not surprising in the context of the way he was living his life prior to his murder and I don't mean to speak ill of someone who's deceased um but you know he was it was known that he was assisting police he was also running his drug trafficking business with the impromata of Victoria Police in her interview with the ABC Gobo denied that she knew the hodsons were to be murdered we make no allegation but she didn't tell the ABC that she was with a leading suspect on the night of the murders a key Lieutenant of mockbel as am Ahmed was the manager of the Oakley drug house that Hodson robbed Gobo was ahmed's lawyer and lover at the same time gobbo was helping police in their pursuit of Paul Dale it all came undone in 2010 in a brutal few seconds inside barwin prison [Music] at about 12 48 PM this afternoon Carl Williams was seated at a table one of the other inmates striking to the Head a number of TOMS with a heavy instrument and Carl has died at the scene the murder charges against Paul Dale were dropped after the Crown's main witness Carl Williams was bashed to death inside barwon prison an angry Dale maintains his innocence over the Oakley burglary and the hodson's murders he told the Royal commission the fix was in when he met Gobo for coffee was set up by Victoria Police shoes and Nicola Gobo when I was in her prison debit matter the police went with their Informer in defiance of conflicting evidence both murders remain unsold to this day Children of the hodsons they discovered the bodies of their parents in the family home take that memory away [Music] not until we get some sort of closure but at least if we can name and shame this person um yeah then we might be able to rest a little bit easier next if you're definitely in love with her and believed also she loved him did Garbo take her lover to the cleanest how much I think the figure mentioned was an original for a million dollars much of her career Nicola Garbo found herself in a Nether world of crooks and cops she crossed the line to intimacy with men on both sides of the law and found herself sinking deeper into the mire Paul Dale spent time in jail over the Hodson murders but to this day he remained sympathetic to gobo's predicament blaming Victoria Police for recruiting gabbo as an Informer in the first place a disgraceful act by Victoria Police and I feel sorry for Nicola Gobo because she was forced to do it let's go back to Adam Ahmed the manager of the mockbill drug house which was burgled in 2003 we know that Ahmed was dining with Nicola Gobo on the night that the hodsons were murdered in 2004. their relationship and its bearing on the Hudson murders was never fully explored at the Royal Commission he was definitely in love with her and believed also truly that she loved him I do believe that they were planning to get married and spend a life together yeah David mccullick knew Ahmed when they were inmates at barwon prison McCulloch also had the respect of Carl Williams who was there at the same time so Ahmed asked McCulloch for a favor in relation to Nicola gombo he had heard through the prison Grapevine that Carl was upset with her and had believed that she was an Informer and he was concerned that some harm could come to him Gobo was informing on Carl Williams but she couldn't tell her boyfriend that so he'd been gulled into believing that she wasn't an Informer absolutely yes what was his demeanor when he was telling you this it's quite emotional it's quite a personable sort of guy he just quite emotional and so what was his message to you could I convey to Carl that she wasn't an Informer and so I just put that to Kyle why don't you just wait until you're 100 sure and he exceeded to that so I was fair to say that you possibly saved gobo's life certainly saved her from being harmed I don't think she knows that happened well I I would be one of the only three that know one is dead at least two I haven't told her that only leaves one he's not talking to her and why isn't Ahmed talking to gabo because when they were planning a life together they bought a number of properties in her name Ahmed told inmates that after the relationship soured he wanted his money back how much I think the figure mentioned was an original for a million dollars what do we know about what's happened to gobo's properties I mean people have tried to research what she owns you can't find it what's actually happened Victoria Police had taken the step to remove any details of ownership by Miss Goebel for many properties associated with her Ahmed wasn't the first lava or client that Garbo burned and there seemed to be a pattern she Drew people in extracted their value and then disposed of them will she go above and beyond for a lot of people maybe not in Adam's case but she's got a personality that needs to be in the middle of everything I've sort of described that sometimes as running towards the fire and running away from it when it gets too hot and then running back that's the way she operated for years and years why didn't she just pull a pin well this is sort of where we get into the psychology of it all even though she's not diagnosed with any particular disorder she has certainly dependency issues it may come back from her childhood she lost her father when she was a teenager and she lost her mother many years later she needed the validity of being important to someone that would be my analysis of it as crazy as a time that was in Melbourne with the Gangland killings and everything that was going on there's something crazier still about about nicolago's conduct that stretches a long way back is an essential flaw in her makeup which which meant that she was Rife to be exploited but also to exploit her clients and her contacts with police in this way what view of you formed about her motivations through all this well I think that's one of the more elusive things why she's done this she's she's rationalize it and so forth there is no question that she was in a hard place I mean she was being squeezed between some very serious cooks and some pretty desperate police and she was compromised [Music] but at the same time as the Royal commission showed she had opportunity to get out of this situation coming up she started really ripping off the crooks in the end how Gobo flipped the tables on the bad guys once they're arrested she's the first person to go down to try and bail him out Gobo was playing a deadly game she wanted to please her police handlers by serving up lovers friends and clients seeking cash rewards in return she was The X Factor in two bungled murder cases but even his word of her treachery was spreading in the Underworld She Was preparing for yet another massive deception and this time she was courting almost certain death by taking on the calabrian mafia police believe they've arrested the Mr Biggs after the biggest drug swoop in Victorian history among those remanded in custody with 34 year old Rob carram of Brunswick there's never been a bust like it 4.4 Toms 15 million ecstasy tablets the approximate street value 440 million dollars when Rob Karam was busted for importing a record amount of ecstasy he had no idea it was his lawyer who was behind his arrest he'd hired gobbo on the recommendation of one of his Mafia mates they both found out the hard way she was double crossing them there's a great quote one of the letters that karam's writing to his mates yeah he's saying you've got to get a good lawyer it's like having a Ferrari and taking it to a Nissan mechanic you've got to get the right mechanic and I've got the best ones you know he had no idea she's living the ultimate high wire act dealing with both sides like that giving information from one to the other which Victoria Police was always worried about but she lived on the edge of trying to make things in a way right for herself and she started really ripping off the crooks in the end taking money from them if Nicola Garbo wanted to make amends for all the things she got wrong the infamous tomato tins bust was the way to do it she'd been acting for Rob Karam on a separate matter when he told her he was organizing an ecstasy shipment his biggest ever three weeks before it arrived at the Melbourne docks Karam handed Gobo a shipping bill of lading for safekeeping while he made a court appearance why the hell would Rob Karan give her that document he wouldn't want to have something like that on him when he's going in and out of court and in the breaks Nicola Gobo Rob Karam and John Higgs going to a restaurant called wheat which was where she would tell people things or get information from them she wouldn't do it in her Chambers myself and she'd do it to this coffee shop restaurant and that's where um this uh this document's produced ever the Good Samaritan Gobo went straight to her Chambers made a copy and presented the document to her police handlers Victoria Police um have this golden moment where this document is presented to them and leads them straight to that container the shipment arrived at the Port of Melbourne on June 28 2007. more than 3 000 jumbo-sized tins of tomatoes fresh from Italy except there were no tomatoes instead 4.4 tons of ecstasy with a street value of 440 million dollars police seized the drugs store them in a safe place and waited for The Syndicate to start arguing amongst themselves they don't know about it being seized and they spend weeks months trying to get that container first off the docks and then when they can't they need to go back and give their masters and excuses where's this guy because there's no publicity about any kind of seizure so they spent the next year trying to get 10 million dollars to pay back their Italian friends back in back in Calabria the friends in Calabria are far from amused they summon the head of the Griffith drug connection Pasquale Barbaro to Italy where he's held captive and interrogated over the missing ecstasy barbaro's life is in the balance and he returns to Melbourne promising to make good on the Lost drugs to ensure he keeps his word the calabrians send Hitmen to Australia eventually Barbaro Rob Karam and others are arrested which probably saves their lives [Music] whenever that level of attention is put on you you're obviously consent for your family well ruthless hit men sitting off your house with high-powered rifles hey I'd be concerned I think so I think that would be a natural reaction it took more than a year for the AFP to build prosecutions against the gang members by then The Syndicate had organized a large shipment of cocaine to help pay the calabrians for the missing tins of ecstasy police swooped on that shipment as well as hoovering up the Tomato tins gang this is a great result this is this is what makes getting up in the morning and coming to work worthwhile [Music] the crooks double crossing lawyer Nicola Gobo is right by their side once they're arrested she's the first person to go down to try and bail him out and she continues on with the head of the Syndicate Barbaro for months and years later I think you can just imagine the fury of Barbaro and Karam when they read reports of the Epic Double Cross by their most trusted lawyer how deep and profound was the breach of trust absolutely total betrayal the disgraced former lawyer admitted to helping police arrest Rob Karen then legally representing him over the Tomato 10 ecstasy Bast he paid sixty thousand dollars in legal fees she denied her actions across the criminal line you know looking back Gobo never had second thoughts about holding on to Crooked cash did you consider that in doing so you'd obtained financial advantage or obtained money by deception no but it's clear her State of Mind was deteriorating as her informing escalated I wanted a tram to hit me on the way to court the morning because I could not work out how to not disappoint anyone or how to not let anyone down and how to get out of that mess without or probably in a way that meant I didn't have to stand up to anyone which seems to be what I had an inability to do in 2015 once the lawyer x scandal was public knowledge Gobo wrote a letter to then assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police Steve Fontana she claimed her motivation for informing was altruistic however her life had effectively been ruined I have struggled to cope with the fact that my reputation has been completely destroyed and my ability to obtain employment within the legal profession or even utilizing my four degrees and experience is hopeless a Google search of my name is quite literally sickening I also struggle to deal with the fact that any of this has happened given all the assurances I was given by police that my assistance would never be a matter of public knowledge the reason she wrote that letter to Steve Fontana is because she's trying to position herself for a reward she's um well look she's quite Shameless on that front still to come those 2.8 million dollar payday do you accept that if you didn't know you should have known uh yes but who's really to blame for the mess my greatest fear is the police themselves [Music] thank you in 2010 nicolagobo extracted a 2.8 million dollar payout from Victoria police after she claimed ill health and refused to testify against Paul Dale over the hearts and murders she had originally asked for 30 million my goodness Cal would that have happened in your day absolutely not [Music] I can't believe that Victoria police would have paid out two or three million dollars to Nicola Jobo without the sanction of the government of the day I mean ultimately they would have required the sanction of at least the police minister to make that payment you know looking at that there's a lot more to come in relation to the whole Affair what they knew and when they knew it yeah that's right at the Royal commission current and former police bosses including commissioner Simon Overland have run a mile from Nicola Gobo can I suggest you weren't doing your job properly well again I don't accept that despite heading up the piranha task force Simon Overland swears he wasn't told Nicola Gobo was providing information to police about Tony mockbel as part of the operation to bring down the drug kingpin Syndicate it is fanciful that you were not aware that gabbo was representing mock Bell at the time that he left no it's not fanciful I I may have I I don't recall whether I did or I didn't do you accept as a person who was ultimately responsible for this investigation that if you didn't know you should have known uh yes up until the Royal commission Simon Overland had the reputation of being the man that entered the Gangland War when he gets in the commission he barely remembers a thing he said he knew that Nicola govo was being used as an informant he didn't know that she was being used to provide information against her clients if police were going to use a lawyer to give evidence about their own clients they ought to realized just as an operational issue was absolutely stupid so I think the management of the whole issue was absolutely appalling and of course Nickelodeon was quite unique clearly she loved the attention she loved playing the jewel roles she must have got a real adrenaline rush out of that I believe but that's costed her career and put a life at risk potentially [Music] I'm sure she's had dealings with police and measures have been taken to protect her but there's no doubt that um this isn't a flipping issue she's someone that needs to be protected and so do her children for the for the rest of their lives and is she getting adequate protections for Regina I believe so are you scared someone might try to kill you there's always going to be a risk um but my greatest fear is the police themselves to to kill you well to either to kill me or to lead to lead to a position where I am killed there's less likely for her to be fearful of the crooks as fearful of the establishment no and whereas she was protected by Vic Paul for all those years she's no longer protected by a new Vic Paul command and a new premier and a new attorney general and a new director of public prosecutions and that would minimize the overall damage to the state of Victoria if she is charged it remains to be seen who will be held responsible for this Fiasco former Chief commissioner Simon Overland has tried to immunize himself by putting the blame on gobo's handlers Gobo herself accepts little responsibility shamelessly seeking even more compensation as though she betrayed try to win their freedom because of her betrayal how many do you think of a show of actually getting out obviously there's been one conviction overturned out of Farooq Gorman tasting his first moments of freedom in 12 years the three judges of the court of appeal ruled that the police informer's betrayal of her client was enough to set him free it was accordingly a substantial miscarriage of Justice the appeal must therefore be allowed leaving the door open for him to cash in on his ordeal now I'd imagine there'd be at least three or four more who have a real good shot at it um who are in in prison Tony mock Bell will try and obviously cram is another one whose case is coming up I'm guilty Crooks walk free from jail because of Gobo that's a terrible outcome but I'm actually more concerned about those who remain free because of her the Cold Case murders of Terry and Christine Hodson and Shane chartres Abbott could still be solved if Victoria Police acted on the evidence they had years ago too much time and money has been spent on chasing innocent people like David Waters with the connivance of Nicola Gaba I think it's pretty straightforward Adam you go back to the basics the original murder investigation and follow the evidence the evidence doesn't lie [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Australian Crime

Views: 159,976

Keywords: Australia, Australian Crime, Australian crime documentary, Australian crime series, Gangs & Mobs, Psychology of Crime, Stalkers, child crime, con artists, crime, crime documentary, crime series, disappearances, family crime, murder, police, serial killer, true crime, true crime documentary, true crime series, Nicola Gobbo, Shane Chartres-Abbott, Female Crime, Woman Criminal, Lawyer, Court room, True Crime Podcast, Aussie Crime, Criminal, Doco, Crime Doco, Gobbo, Lawyer X, Drama

Id: 4SVa0JIX1-4

Length: 50min 26sec (3026 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 12 2022