Victoria Police and lawyers for Ms Gobbo had been fighting to keep her name from being published despite opposition from the royal commission, the Victorian and Commonwealth directors of public prosecutions and the media. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said that although the force lost every attempt to keep her secret, he had a duty to keep her safe. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "All the assessments in relation to Lawyer X showed there were significant safety risks," he told radio station 3AW. "This [her identity] will be broadcast very broadly. People will see her face in the paper or in electronic media and they'll know what the person looks like so from the point of view of recognising people in the street ... it becomes another layer we have to look at."

However, her name has been an open secret in the underworld. Loading Late last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to her former clients, some of whom are still serving jail time, to notify them their lawyer had also been a police informer. Among those to be notified was jailed drug lord Tony Mokbel, who is now recovering in a secure wing of St Vincent's Hospital after being stabbed in Victoria's maximum security Barwon prison last month. Ms Gobbo was one of the youngest women ever admitted to the bar when she became a barrister in 1998 at the age of 25.

She went on to make a name for herself by representing a rogue's gallery of Melbourne's underworld, including Carl Williams. Ms Gobbo, who became a solicitor in 1996, was first registered as a police informer in 1995 and again from 2005 to 2009 at the height of the gangland war. Nicola Gobbo (right) with Tony Mokbel in 2004 after he was released on bail. Credit:Vince Caligiuri She had mixed motivations for turning police informer, a previous Court of Appeal judgment concluded, including "ill health, feeling trapped in the criminal world of her clients ... and [wanting] to be rid of Tony Mokbel and his associates". Those that knew her said Ms Gobbo, who mixed socially with both police and criminals, also "wanted to be wanted".

Her double life imploded in 2009 when police turned her into a witness in the most significant police corruption case in the state's history: the execution-style murders of another police informer, Terence Hodson, and his wife Christine. Some of Ms Gobbo's clients began to suspect she'd turned informer. She received death threats before pulling an extraordinary handbrake turn and suing Victoria Police for failing in its duty to keep her safe. Loading The scandal has taken almost a decade to play out, but it unfolded largely in secret, shrouded in suppression orders until the Director of Public Prosecutions decided it had a duty to disclose to her former clients that she may have informed on them and breached her professional legal privilege.

The High Court found that Victoria Police’s decision to use her as a confidential informer was "reprehensible" and "debased fundamental premises of the criminal justice system". It left Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews with no choice but to call a royal commission into the police's handling of Ms Gobbo and other informers. Mr Ashton has said throughout the process that the use of Informer 3838 was pivotal in halting the city’s escalating and deadly gangland war. Mick Gatto and Nicola Gobbo at the funeral of Labor stalwart Stephen Drazetic in 2008. Credit:Angela Wylie Mr Ashton has also maintained the risk to her safety would be extreme if her identity was published.

Underworld associates published photos of her on social media late last year, along with her name. The posts attracted a number of veiled threats including: "Rats don't last long" and "Every dog has their day." Nicola Gobbo (left) outside court with barrister Con Heliotis, QC, after Tony Mokbel failed to show up for his trial in March 2006. Mokbel went on the run and was arrested in Greece the following year. Credit:Simon O'Dwyer Despite this, Ms Gobbo has been seen on the streets of Melbourne in recent months. The royal commission, in its first directions hearing last month, heard she would cooperate with the expansive inquiry.