COMMISSIONER MARGARET MCMURDO: This commission results from the conduct of a former legal practitioner and her relationship with Victoria Police.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN:

To police she was known as informer 3838.



DAMON JOHNSTON, Editor, Herald Sun: This is probably the single biggest scandal to hit the Australian justice system in history.

COMMISSIONER MARGARET MCMURDO: She purported to act as counsel for clients charged with criminal offences whilst simultaneously informing on those clients to police.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: For years the public only knew her as Lawyer X as Victoria police fought to keep her identity secret. Now Nicola Gobbo is the most infamous lawyer in Australia.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: I don't think that there has ever been a case that I've heard of in the western world that has all of the features that this case has, where at every single layer of the system it's been corrupted so egregiously by people so high up in the Victoria Police hierarchy. It's unprecedented.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: This is a tale of cops, criminals, murder and betrayal that has become the biggest crisis ever faced by the Australian justice system.

In the Victorian courts Nicola Gobbo was building a career as an effective - at times fearsome - defence barrister. Her clients were a who's who of the criminal underworld. But Gobbo had a dirty secret - she was also a registered police informer and was passing information about her clients to police.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: When she walked in the door and said, "I want to be an informer," they should've turned around and said, "Not possible, thanks very much."

NICOLA GOBBO: Do you think you've got enough now?

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Who would ever have thought a formidable defence barrister is going to turn rogue and start using her clients' information, give it to the police? You'd never think that in a month of Sundays.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Tonight on 4 corners, how the crisis known as the 'Lawyer X' scandal has undermined trust in the criminal justice system and raised serious questions about the conduct of Victoria Police.

STORY TITLE: 'REPREHENSIBLE CONDUCT'

NEWS REPORTER: There's been another pay-back gangland killing in Melbourne.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: For Melbourne homicide detectives like Charlie Bezzina, the late 1990's and early 2000's were a wild ride. The underworld was tearing itself apart.

POLICE OFFICER: It's clear the man has been ambushed and executed.

SIMON OVERLAND: Two men wearing balaclavas, there was some sought of confrontation inside, there were shots fired ...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: From the working-class streets of Sunshine ...

WOMAN RESIDENT: There was a bang bang bang.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: To the gentrifying cafes of Carlton and Brunswick - the bodies were piling up.

WITNESS IN STREET: We heard three, maybe four shots, pretty rapid fire so it sounded like semi-automatic or automatic gun.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Look, in those days it was something we'd never been exposed to in all the years that I was a police officer. Carl Williams being shot by Jason and Mark Moran and the likes then that escalated from that point. And again it's like what they see in movies in American movies, a turf war.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Two of Melbourne's most notorious crime gangs - The Williams family and the Carlton crew -- began a bloody fight for control of the cities lucrative drug trade. It would become known simply as the gangland war

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Whilst we had many years ago in the '60s and '70s the murders in the Victorian Market and the mafia and alleged mafia involvement, here we had an era where we were getting underworld figures being murdered at an alarming rate.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Can you describe what it was like here in Melbourne in those years?

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: Oh, Chicago in the '30s. It was totally lawless, and the media were selling plenty of newspapers based on the stories of the latest infraction by Victorian criminals. It was an epidemic of murder and crime going on that Victoria police were legitimately very concerned about, and the citizens of Melbourne were obviously very concerned about.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: One of the criminals on the rise was drug dealer Carl Williams- it was his shooting in 1999 that ramped up the violence.

CARL WILLIAMS: They say it happening over money, that I was shot everything like that. As I said I don't know anything, who I was shot by, why I was shot.

JONATHAN HOLMES: You don't know who shot you?

CARL WILLIAMS: No, I don't know who shot me.

JONATHAN HOLMES: Well, did you have your eyes shut at the time or what?

CARL WILLIAMS: Yeah, well I've got no idea really who shot me.

JONATHAN HOLMES: And it's got nothing to do with you that both of those two men are dead now?

CARL WILLIAMS: Nah, it's nothing to do with me at all.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The baby-faced mobster who began dealing on the fringe of the drug scene was now well on the way to becoming the leader of a multi-million dollar drug empire - and he was hell bent on revenge.

RADIO PRESENTER: The violence that marks payback in the underworld took a savage turn during the weekend when an infamous Melbourne crime figure was shot dead in front of his children.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: The real turning point was definitely the murders of Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro at the footy clinic, because previously people were murdered in their driveways in their cars at night, and now you have got normal suburban families going to an AusKick clinic and seeing two people brutally murdered in front of their own children.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Crooks don't do things like that. They have their own unwritten law. So this went outside the bounds of what career seasoned criminals would do themselves and what was acceptable at all within our community. So it was outside those two realms significantly. So this was a major, major turning point in the underworld killings.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Over the next few years the gangland violence would thrust the criminals, the state's top cops, and a handful of defence lawyers into the public spotlight. This was a career making moment ... two of the most prominent were young female and flamboyant. One was Nicola Gobbo who would later become Carl Williams' lawyer.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Now if you appeared before Nicola Gobbo you knew you were in for a run in that witness box. She was no slouch. She knew her business very, very well. She knew police procedures, and you knew you were in for a run for your money.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: Her uncle was a Supreme Court judge before becoming governor of Victoria, he was a Rhodes scholar and got degrees from Oxford. The sister is a member of the Victorian Bar. Cousin is a member of the Victorian Bar. It's a large legal family.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: What does the name Gobbo mean here in legal circles?

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: It did mean everything in legal circles. It was a ticket to anywhere. Unfortunately, now it's going to be remembered for a lot more than what it did stand for.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: With a name like Gobbo, she would've had a very promising career of her, wouldn't she?"

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Oh, without question, there'd be a stepping stone straight onto the bench.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The other colourful young defence lawyer who represented well known underworld figures at the time was Zarah Garde-Wilson.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: I can recall sort of that period, it was almost a gangland killing every couple of weeks.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In the early 2000's Nicola Gobbo's career was on a fast track. But her approach was anything but traditional

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: All criminal lawyers will end up doing a high-profile case in their career, they'll all end up getting chased down the street by camera crews in relation to at least one client, but the people she represented, she seemed to be attracted to the people who would attract the most attention. And she did so both in a personal, and professional capacity.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: As the gangland figures rolled up to court - Nicola Gobbo was often at their side. And when the courts closed she was at the celebrations and the family dinners...blurring the line between professional and personal.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: When you see that famous picture of Nicola Gobbo at the Crown Casino with Williams, arm in arm and that type of stuff, you sort of reel back as an investigator and say, "Well hang on a minute, is this appropriate for a defence barrister to be that?" Her role is to protect people in relation to a defence barrister, but not to be seen socializing with these people.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The conduct alarmed many of her colleagues. It was unusual - and given the times potentially dangerous. Criminal lawyer Ruth Parker has also acted for a number of underworld figures.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: There was no self-preservation to begin with. When you are socializing with people who you understand are under investigation for a series of murders, for commercial quantity drug trafficking, I mean, why are you giving speeches at Dakota Williams' christening? Why are you going to dinner with your clients? The danger she put herself in, was that she became part of the gang.

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: There's a very strict demarcation. You don't socialize with your clients. We're working in the criminal jurisdiction. You act professionally. You defend them vigorously. But what you don't do is you don't cross that line and you don't socialize with people. It's dangerous. Particularly in that period from 1999 to 2005, 30 odd people had been killed. It's dangerous all right. And when you nail your colours to the mast in the way that she did, she was inviting trouble.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: But the lawyers didn't know the half of it. For the last 8 months, a Royal Commission in Melbourne has laid out the scale of her dangerous double game. The commission has heard it began back in the early 90's when she was still at law school.

RISHI NATHWANI: Am I right in saying then at the time you were registering Nicola Gobbo as an informer you knew, one, she was a law student?



INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: Yep.

RISHI NATHWANI: At the bottom it says you also were aware, I'm asking you, that she was intending to become a solicitor, agreed?

INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: That's correct, yes.

RISHI NATHWANI: Right, do you therefore agree that a decision was made by someone, be it you or otherwise, that she potentially could be a good asset?

INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: Yes, otherwise we wouldn't have bothered registering her.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: It appears to have started in university days, her personality coming out of really wanting to play the whole field.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Royal Commission has heard that Nicola Gobbo's first contact with the drug squad was when they raided this house in Carlton in 1993. The first person Gobbo informed on was her flatmate and boyfriend at the time who was a drug dealer.

RISHI NATHWANI, Counsel for Nicola Gobbo: Going back to the search on 3 September, '93, as I understand it you also were aware by then she was providing at least some intelligence on him at the very least by saying the drugs are in the vent and they're his?

INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: Correct.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The boyfriend she was living with was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence. Nicola Gobbo was given a 12-month good behaviour bond and no conviction. Police identified her as a human source worth cultivating.

RISHI NATHWANI, Counsel for Nicola Gobbo: And do you agree it was you who was involved in recruiting her?

INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: I've never disputed that, thus the registration, yes.

RISHI NATHWANI, Counsel for Nicola Gobbo: I'm not criticising. So when ... it must have been fairly unique to be in the position of trying, recruiting someone as an informant who is all of those factors, someone who is a law student, intending to practice the law, intending err related to someone within the law and also a partner of a known criminal?

INSPECTOR TREVOR ASHTON, Victoria Police: And your question being, I'm sorry?

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: From the time she was first recruited as an informer some police were expressing concern about her. She was described as a loose cannon and criticised for making her own arrangements and not liaising with investigators.

CHRIS WINNEKE QC, Counsel assisting the Commissioner: Is it your understanding that the detective recalls having concerns that led him to the view that she shouldn't be registered as an informer. One of the reasons why was that she was a solicitor?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER NEIL PATERSON, Victoria Police: Yes, that's right.

CHRIS WINNEKE QC, Counsel assisting the Commissioner: Also, that she was too overt in her desire to provide information to police?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER NEIL PATERSON, Victoria Police: That's correct.

CHRIS WINNEKE QC, Counsel assisting the Commissioner: That her relationships with some officers was inappropriate?

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER NEIL PATERSON, Victoria Police: That's correct.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Despite the concerns about her character she was used on and off as an informer throughout the 90's - before being deregistered as an informer in 2000. By the early 2000's Nicola Gobbo was a barrister representing many of the key underworld figures - including the drug kingpin Tony Mokbel. Melbourne's gangland war was in full swing. The number of dead was growing.

SUPERINTENDENT IAN BAKER: It was in the media. It was political and nearly every day you were reading write-ups about somebody getting murdered or some violent crimes occurring.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Nicola Gobbo was also out drinking with police at hotels like O'Connells and talking unofficially with detectives.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: I think what has come out from the Royal Commission is, it wasn't as much that she loved it, she needed it. There was something deeply unwell about her need for validation, and her need to be constantly surrounded by risky people.

SIMON OVERLAND: I have to say though experience in the past ...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In 2003 The young confident new Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland became the public face of Victoria police efforts to reign in the violence. As the gangland hits continued he was often at the scene just in front of the cameras.

SIMON OVERLAND: All available resources will be bought onto this job. We will leave no stone unturned to find the people responsible for this latest murder.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Overland was instrumental in establishing the special taskforce called Purana.

NEWS REPORTER: Early this morning the Purana task force which is investigating more than 20 underworld murders in Melbourne took over the case...

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: They were specifically designed, and the unit was put together to investigate gangland murders. And it was a political decision to put together what was a specialist task force, the elite of the elite, and they became a law enforcement superpower.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland and the current Commissioner Graham Ashton who was the at the office of police integrity were brought in from the AFP. They had a different approach to policing that rubbed badly with the old guard.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: These are Federal Police officers, they don't have the experience of coal face policing. They don't. Because federal policing is so different from state policing. Yet here they are calling the shots.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Police were desperate to bring the gangland killings to an end. In September 2005, Victoria Police made the astonishing decision to register Nicola Gobbo as an informer once again. She would become the police secret weapon in the underworld war.

SUPERINTENDENT IAN BAKER, Victoria Police, 1967 - 2009: I would say that there were certain people in the administration of Victoria Police at a very high level, whose egos and ambition and the publicity surrounding it, were all too eager to have Nicola Gobbo as an informer and to solve these types of crimes.

KIM WELLS, Shadow Police Minister, 2000 - 2006: It was world news that the so-called one of the safest places in the world were having these massive hits on a regular basis, and I think the police view, and that the feeling that we were getting as an opposition, is that they were going to do whatever it took to get it done. And as it's turned out, you know the courts will determine that they have probably overstepped the mark and there will be consequences as a result of that.

SUPERINTENDENT IAN BAKER, Victoria Police, 1967 - 2009: The decision to use her would have gone a long way up the tree. I don't know how far, but whoever made the decision to use Nicola Gobbo as an informer, it was a very naive decision. And a lot of the operational members, and members that I've spoken to, and retired members, just can't believe the Victoria Police did that at that time.

MEGAN TITTENSOR, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission: On the 8th September 2005, did you attend a meeting with Detective Acting Superintendent Hill, Detective Inspector White, Detective Sergeant Mansell and members of the SDU?

DETECTIVE SERGEANT PAUL ROWE, Victoria Police: Yes.

MEGAN TITTENSOR, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission: And there was a decision made on that day for the SDU to meet with Ms Gobbo to assess her suitability, is that right?

DETECTIVE SERGEANT PAUL ROWE, Victoria Police: Yes.

MEGAN TITTENSOR, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission: Was there any discussion at that meeting about the ethical implications of making a lawyer a police agent, effectively?

DETECTIVE SERGEANT PAUL ROWE, Victoria Police: I don't remember

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: There appears not to be a case anywhere around the world where this has occurred before, which goes to show the significance of it. No one's been willing to cross that line, other than Victoria Police.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: You've stopped the shootings; people are locked up on remand awaiting trial. To go the next step and recruit a criminal defence lawyer to ensure that they are convicted for the rest of their lives, or for decades, that's not pressure, that's a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: Probably they would say at the time, the ends justify the means, but that's hardly an excuse and hardly justifies it, and can never ever justify what's occurred.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: One of those she turned on was her client - the drug baron Tony Mokbel. Gobbo had grown fearful of Mokbel who had begun threatening her. She later said he was one of the main reasons she agreed to become an informer...to get him off her back.

POLICE HANDLER: So where do we start?

NICOLA GOBBO: Well, you - I guess you can start.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: As this recording of Gobbo and her handlers reveals she was willing to give police everything she knew.

POLICE HANDLER: I can say then tell me everything about Tony Mokbell.

SMITH: Yeah

NICOLA GOBBO: How long you got. - how many weeks have we booked the room for?

POLICE HANDLER: Well, to be quite honest, if you want to go down that track, we will - it will take as long as it takes.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: She was effectively dealing up her clients on a platter to the prosecuting authorities when they had every expectation that she would be looking after them. She simply betrayed them.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Another client of Nicola Gobbo's was this man Terry Hodson

TERRY HODSON: Get fucked

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: A minor player in the Melbourne drug scene but a valuable informer for Victoria police. His police overseer was Drug Squad Detective Paul Dale.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: The fact that it went for so long and went undetected for so long, and that she was capable of putting on the Jekyll and Hyde face throughout this on a daily basis is quite extraordinary.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: It was Gobbo's dealings with these two men - Hodson and Dale - that would eventually lead to her undoing. She became enmeshed in one of the most intriguing crimes of the gangland war.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In 2003 a drug house in Melbourne controlled by the drug king pin Tony Mokbel was broken into. A stash of drugs was stolen. The break in was conducted by Hodson and Detective Dave Miechel - Hodson's police handler and a member of Paul Dale's Drug Squad.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: Ultimately Dave Miechel is arrested by a police dog handler. Terry Hodson's arrested. Terry Hodson then makes a statement that implicates Paul Dale of being part and parcel of the potential burglary at the place, which is completely denied by Paul Dale.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Dale's alibi was that he was in Bendigo on the night of the robbery. Rob Stary was Terry Hodson's lawyer

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: We became involved with Terry Hodson just prior to his committal hearing or his preliminary hearing, where we made arrangements that he would, or brokered a deal where he would plead guilty to burglary and theft committed in the company of two other police officers. And then he would then give evidence against those police officers, including Paul Dale, and we'd come to an agreement with the prosecution that he would not serve a term of imprisonment.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Just before it was heard, Rob Stary was told he was off the case and that Terry Hodson would be represented by Nicolo Gobbo.

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: I was completely surprised. We had a good relationship with Terry and his wife, Christine, and their children. So there was a good rapport with them. We'd come to a good arrangement for him. And so we were completely blown away by the fact that he'd sought to instruct other people.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: And now you know what you know, what happened?

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Well, it appears that Nicola Gobbo maintained contact with him and then she decided, or she, arrangements were made for her to appear. Now we didn't know obviously that she was in a relationship with Paul Dale, one of the accused. And we didn't know that she was conveying information to him.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: So Nicola Gobbo was representing the Hodson's?

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Yes.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: At the same time getting information from Paul Dale who they were going to testify against?

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Yes. And she was conveying information to Paul Dale.

MANDY HODSON: She asked to see my Dad from what I can gather, and I think she did represent my brother, because of my brother knowing Tony Mokbel and all that.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Mandy Hodson is one of Terry Hodson's three children.

MANDY HODSON: I've never liked her. I didn't meet her personally at first, but I was the one who nicknamed her Sharon Twenty Stone, because of the outfits when she was a bit bigger that she used to wear, reminded me of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Mandy Hodson says her father knew his days were numbered.

MANDY HODSON: He used to walk around and say he was a dead man walking. I knew the extent of it but I didn't ever think I would come and find them murdered.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: On the 15th of May 2004. Terry Hodson and his wife Christine were murdered as they watched television at home.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Charlie Bezzina was the investigating detective.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: I'm the on-call team. I get called out to the scene and that's what I'm confronted with. Christine and Terry's body in the back room, been shot to the back of the head, no sign of forced entry. Then I just start doing an investigation and learning things. Why would someone want to kill this person? here we have a police informer. Crooks don't like police informers. So I had a myriad of different people that wanted Terry dead.

MANDY HODSON: I think that it was someone dressed or impersonating a police officer, because then that would have made sense as to why he didn't have his gun next to him. He might have said to my mum, or watching on his TV, he might had said, "Oh, that's the police. You put the gun away and I'll go and let them in."

ROBERT STARY, Criminal Defence Lawyer: And of course the allegation against Paul Dale was that he contracted Carl Williams to kill Hodson, had no idea obviously that that was happening. And so on the day that Terry Hodson was killed, police rang me and I was completely, completely shocked and unnerved by what happened.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Williams later told Police Paul Dale asked him to arrange the hit on Terry Hodson for $150,000. Williams also said it was Nicola Gobbo who gave him Dale's phone number. Unknown to Charlie Bezzina police command had their own parallel operation involving Gobbo underway.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: In the meantime I learn that Overland and others are running Gobbo behind my back in relation to the Hodson investigation and other things as we now know, without any knowledge of me. I'm not entrusted in that particular thing. Why? I don't know. That's something you'd have to ask him, I've just gone on me merry way. You know what? I'm focused on getting the killers or killer for the Hodson people, whilst they're doing their own little thing behind my back.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: At this time the use of Gobbo as an informer was kept close ... but in the criminal and legal world some started suspecting something wasn't quite right.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: The suspicions were around 2006, and this is when a number of gangland people had rolled and become prosecution witnesses. And there was clearly a crossover in relation to her representation, potentially of them and current clients, and the continuation of her representing those current clients.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: One of Gobbo's biggest clients also made it clear he knew what she was up to.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: You had Carl Williams come out and say to people: "Nicola Gobbo is a dog. She is informing." What did anyone do with that? Nothing. I think he was poo-pooed and said, "Well mate, you're a criminal. We don't accept what you're saying." But it was coming from other sources. But everyone remained muted on it.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Complaints were made by Carl Williams to the Ethics Committee and the Bar Committee and various other parties, that, "Hey, there appears to be a conflict of interest here. I'd like it stopped." And it just went nowhere.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Why is that, do you think?

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: It's unbelievable. It's just not plausible that Victoria Police would have the gall to register a barrister on her own clients, it's ...

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The implications of what she was doing wasn't lost on Nicola Gobbo herself. Recordings revealed at the Royal Commission show this time she was concerned police weren't doing enough to protect her anonymity.

NICOLA GOBBO: I've chucked ethics out the window, I've chucked legal professional privilege out the window, I've chucked my career out the window if any of this ever came out. Forget about - I wouldn't even be covered by insurance. I would be so fucked it's not funny.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: No one could have had any doubt how dangerous this was.

Gobbo herself received a number of threatening text messages.

"keep you mouth shut slut fuckn dog"

"you need to keep that informing dog mouth shut slut"

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Despite the growing concerns about her safety, Victoria Police then made the extraordinary decision to have Gobbo wear a wire to record a conversation with Paul Dale.

DET SENIOR SERGEANT CHARLIE BEZZINA, Victoria Police,1971-2009: They were certainly keen to see if in fact Paul Dale was involved in the Hodson killings. What better way to do it with someone that Dale is sleeping with, and a defence barrister, Had Paul Dale found that she was wearing a wire, well, goodness knows. It would've been, the outcome would've been, I suppose not good in that regard. So to make that decision ... you know, significant.

KIM WELLS, Shadow Police Minister, 2000-2006: A police officer said to me, senior police officer, said to me that he thought that the way it was being handled had overstepped the mark and it would lead to a royal commission, and, of course, he turned out to be very right.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Did he say specifically that she was informing for them?

KIM WELLS, Shadow Police Minister, 2000-2006: He said that she was playing both sides.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: After recording a conversation with Dale Gobbo initially agreed to be a witness against him. The royal commission has heard that the police steering committee overseeing the Hodson murders ignored warnings that this could put her at grave risk. The current Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and the former Assistant Commissioner Simon Overland were on that steering committee.

SUPERINTENDENT IAN BAKER, Victoria Police, 1967 - 2009: The number one rule with any informer is anonymity. That's the number one thing you do, and any serving policeman at the present time would tell you that. And to even consider using them as a witness is unheard of. Once again, I will say that whoever made that decision was extremely naive and it showed a complete lack of operational experience.

PAUL DALE (outside court): I'm totally innocent of the murder of Christine and Terrence Hodson.

NEWS REPORT: Paul Dale was once a Detective Sergeant in the Drug Squad, he's now accuse of organising one of Victoria's most notorious murders.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Paul Dale was arrested for the murder of the Hodsons in February 2009. By now Nicola Gobbo's relationship with police was spiralling out of control she had been deregistered as an informer. Gobbo refused to testify against Dale. She went public with an attack on police and a dramatic demand for compensation.

NICOLA GOBBO: Having had the courage and strength to agree to become a witness for Victoria Police, I was required to give up my home, my security, my sense of life as I knew it. I was assured by Mr Overland that I would be compensated and that I would be left no worse off. I have become seriously ill, as a result of the way in which I was forced to live during this period of time and my health has deteriorated as a result of constant stress and uncertainty. I remain in fear for my life since agreeing to give evidence for Victoria Police. It is unfortunate that I was left with no alternative but to issue proceedings and to seek justice.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: While Nicolo Gobbo was pleading her case publicly, the case against Paul Dale sensationally collapsed with the murder of Carl Williams in Barwon prison. The charges against Dale over the Hodson murders were dropped. At the Royal Commission Paul Dale claimed he was set up by Victoria Police.

PAUL DALE: I truly believe they've committed a criminal offence...perverted the course of justice.They used her against me, then they tried to use her as a witness against me in a criminal matter and it was an absolute debacle what went on at court through that period while they were trying to protect what they'd done. 8 months in solitary confinement because of the tape recording of a criminal barrister that I sought for legal advice and now we see the whole can of worms opened up about what else she did for all of her clients, against her clients, on behalf of Victoria Police.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In August 2010 Victoria police agreed to a settlement with Nicola Gobbo reported to be nearly 3 million dollars. While Gobbo had now outed herself as a witness the fact that she was also a police informer was still secret.

DAMON JOHNSTON: This was the story that Victoria police didn't want Australians to read about. They didn't want them to know about it. They kept it secret for the better part of 15 years. She'd stopped informing in 2010, this was now March of 2014, I reckon they probably thought they'd gotten away with it.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The information provided by Nicola Gobbo helped lock up some of the state's biggest criminals, but the ethical and legal questions about using a barrister as an informer would continue to dog Victoria police. Two secret reviews into the decision would deliver highly critical assessments. And Inevitably the story began to leak

DAMON JOHNSTON: Anthony Dowsley, our investigative reporter rang me and he said four words, "I've got a story." I knew they wouldn't like it. I underestimated, I fundamentally underestimated how much they would not like it though. And in the end, the fact that we didn't name her in that initial report and we came up with a pseudonym, Lawyer X, you know they didn't back off.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The now Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton was determined to stop her identity becoming public knowledge. Police were granted multiple suppression orders and injunctions to prevent identifying her in any way.

DAMON JOHNSTON: This was unprecedented. We were dragged into court 28 times over that five-year period by Victoria Police and the Victorian Government solicitor's office, and on each occasion we were threatened with prosecution, conviction, fines. Very quickly after we published that initial story, we were also injuncted and suppressed from even calling her Lawyer X.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In another stunning move the Director of Public Prosecutions declared an intention to notify a number of Gobbos clients that she had been a police informer. The response from police was to try to stop it. They challenged the DPP all the way to the High Court.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: The case winded its way through the Supreme Court of Victoria. It then went to the Court of Appeal of Victoria. It then went to the high court. Each party was represented by senior counsel and solicitors and junior counsel, and huge amounts of public money effectively was expended as a result of the actions of the Chief Commissioner.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The High Court endorsed the decisions of the Victorian Courts, allowing the DPP to disclose the information. The High Court ruling described the decision to recruit Gobbo as "reprehensible conduct" that "debased fundamental premises of the criminal justice system."

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: It was a scathing indictment of her conduct and in particular of the conduct of Victoria Police, which they say sanctioned and countenanced it, and they say that Victoria Police effectively counters to the breach by every sworn police officer in Victoria of their oath of office.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Whilst you might have senior police officers who said, "Oh, yes, I wasn't very comfortable about it," they still allowed people to be convicted with tainted evidence and spend years in prison and did nothing.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: For years Victoria police fought to keep Nicola Gobbos identity secret - and it seems even here at the Royal Commission they're reluctant to be fully transparent. Since the hearings began they've been accused of frustrating the proceedings and withholding information. At one point the commissioner was even moved to warn Police they faced prosecution for withholding documents requested by the inquiry.

COMMISSIONER MARGARET MCMURDO: Could I suggest that you and those instructing you remind your clients of this Notice to Produce, of their obligations under it, which are ongoing, that it's an offence not to comply with it and that an agency of the Crown can, under the Inquiries Act, be charged with the commission of an offence.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Despite being asked repeatedly by the commission Victoria Police have been reluctant to produce documents and witness statements.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: Documents have been dribbled forth to the Commission, always late and not with adequate time for those effected to cross examine on them. There's obviously been a concerted attempt to stymie the Commission as much as been possible.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: There's a tendency here to delay, to obfuscate, to hope that this is all going to go away somehow. If the most well-resourced department of the Victorian Government is finding it this difficult, then there really are only two explanations, either people are just not doing their jobs, or this is intentional.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: It is extraordinary. The Commission is still being provided with documents that were requested months ago. There's accused out there that still haven't received disclosure in relation to these matters.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Gobbo herself has said that a total of 386 people were arrested and charged based upon information she provided to police. The Office of Public Prosecutions has written to 31 convicted criminals to let them know their cases may have been tainted.

DAMON JOHNSTON: Were men wrongly convicted or convicted on tainted evidence. Who did it, who ordered it, and what's going to happen to those police officers who were involved. Make no mistake there are some really bad men who could get out of jail because of the actions of Victoria Police and Nicola Gobbo.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: How does it play out from here?

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Very, very slow process of unwinding every single one of those cases and determining what really has gone on, and what ought happen in the future.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The unethical use of Nicola Gobbo as an informer has already led to the release of one of the convicted gangland figures. Faruk Orman was convicted of murder and spent more than a decade in jail. His lawyer is Ruth Parker

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: What happened was that a witness gave evidence against him, which we now know was created with the assistance of Nicola Gobbo.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: In Orman's case Gobbo's assistance to police went well beyond just securing convictions.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: And so on the day that she heard that he'd been arrested, the same day he contacted her, the same day she was contacting the main witness against him, she contacted her handlers and said, "He needs to be surrounded by people at all times, and he's obsessive compulsive in terms of cleanliness. If you keep him isolated in messy conditions, he'll break."

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Faruk Orman was kept in solitary confinement for three years.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Eighteen months into his three-year stint in solitary confinement, she reports back to her handlers, that Purana tactics are working, he's at his lowest that he's ever been. It's unknown whether he will roll, but obviously she's staying on top of the situation.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Rob Karam is another underworld figure who will be appealing. He was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 37 years in jail. His lawyer is Zarah Garde-Wilson.

ZARAH GARDE-WILSON, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Well, when we first filed for Mr. Karam in 2015, counsel who appeared for the Chief Commissioner said that our appeal was "a delusional fantasy, and nothing more." The mere fact that she was a registered police informer is a delusional fantasy. So that's the starting mark that we started with.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The drug baron Tony Mokbel, currently serving 30 years, will also be appealing. His lawyer has accused Victoria Police of criminal behaviour.

RICHARD MAIDMENT QC: This is not just a case of impropriety. There is criminal conduct here and that involves aiding and abetting Gobbo in perverting the course of justice. This is a situation that is of their own making. Nothing like this has ever occurred to my knowledge.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Ruth Parker also believes those police commanders who sanctioned the decision to recruit Gobbo have committed criminal offences.

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: They need to take full responsibility, but that can only happen when the people whose personal interests are divided from the interests of the organization. I mean, one thing that has always astonished me, is how you can have an organization run by a person such as Graham Ashton in circumstances where he is well and truly in the spotlight, potentially having committed criminal offenses himself.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: So it is pretty clear in your mind that the actions of Ashton, and Overland and other senior police officers is corrupt?

RUTH PARKER, Criminal Defence Lawyer: Yes. Anybody who thinks that registering a criminal defence barrister as a human source, using them against her clients, facilitating dishonesty in the court system, facilitating perjury, and covering up the fact that it had happened, I mean, that is the very definition of corruption.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Graham Ashton and Simon Overland have yet to appear before the Royal Commission. Both declined to appear in this program. Ashton's only public comments so far have come during his regular monthly radio slots with 3AW and ABC.

GRAHAM ASHTON: We were investigating very serious crimes back then, that were very serious breaches of the law, and that was the whole raison d'etre behind that whole investigation was to investigate what were very serious and dangerous crimes at that time that were impacting heavily in the community.

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: The upper hierarchy of Victoria police has to take complete responsibility. I mean the buck stops at the top clearly, and it went as high as the Chief Commissioner and some Assistant Commissioners. Those who knew and sanctioned what was happening were guilty of terrible breaches of duty and extraordinarily unethical behaviour.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: How much responsibility does the current police commissioner, the former assistant commissioner, have to take for the situation Victoria Police is in?

SUPERINTENDENT IAN BAKER, Victoria Police, 1967 - 2009: Well, culture starts at the top. The head of the fish rots first. This is going to be a very, very dark time in the history of Victoria Police force, and unfortunately, it's going to extend over a period of probably 15 to 20 years. It's going to take some time to rebuild the trust of the community, to bring back ethics into the job.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Are you surprised the Chief Commissioner is still there?

GAVIN SILBERT QC, Chief Crown Prosecutor, 2008 - 2018: I'm absolutely surprised. I don't know how he's lasted so long. Public perceptions of the police force have been very damaged by this, and as the high court has said, it goes to the fundamental foundations of the whole of the criminal justice system. How that's repaired, I don't know. But one would have thought anyone in the hierarchy who sanctioned this should have gone.

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