Nicola Gobbo Biography, Age, Wiki, Height

Nicola Maree Gobbo (born 16 November 1972 in Melbourne) is a retired criminal defense lawyer and police informant who resides in Australia. Also known as Informant 3838, Nicola Gobbo was also known as Lawyer X

Nicola Gobbo Career

Nicola began her career as a police informant in 1995, when she was still in her final year of law school at the University of Melbourne. She later defended “members of Gangland” such as Tony Mokbel, Carl Williams and Rob Kerim, a drug dealer.

However, after a five-year battle in court to keep his name hidden, the Court finally revealed him and his cover was blown.

1996 election scandal involving Nicola Gobbo

During the 1996 Australian federal election, Gobbo made his first media appearance. Labor Treasurer Ralph Willis used letters allegedly from Jeff Kennett criticizing Liberal activist John Howard in the final week of voting. The letters were quickly revealed to be forgeries. Gobbo, who was then a member of the Young Labor Party, openly alleged that the forger was then Liberal staffer and current Senate Speaker Scott Ryan, who planned for the fake to pass initial inspection and then come back to haunt the Labor Party. . Ryan rejected the claim despite the constitutional declaration signed by Gobbo.

The Lawyer X scandal involving Nicola Gobbo

Gobbo was a licensed police informant between 1995 and 2009, as well as defense counsel to several Melbourne organized crime figures. When representing her clients, she passed on information about them to Victoria Police, leading to the possibility of several convictions being overturned. During media coverage of the scandal in 2018 and 2019, Gobbo’s name was dropped and she was only referred to as Lawyer X or Informer 3838 in the media. When it was revealed that she had represented convicted felons Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel, the removal order was lifted in December 2018.

Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, ordered the Royal Commission into the management of police informants on December 3, 2018. The Royal Commission considered the number of criminal prosecutions that may have been affected by Gobbo’s actions, as well as the extent to which they may have been affected. The Commission was due to deliver its report to the government in July 2019, but as the investigation progressed, it became clear that this deadline would not be met. The Commission received $20 million in new funding in May 2019 along with a 12-month extension to July 2020.

In May 2019, it was announced that some of Gobbo’s felony convictions could be overturned on appeal, based on the possibility that Gobbo may have provided evidence to police that contributed to his clients’ convictions while representing them. as their defense attorney. The High Court ruled that [Gobbo] secretly spy [her] clients was a “fundamental and appalling breach” of the lawyer’s duties when he lifted the suppression order to release his name. The justices commented in their decision on appeal from the Supreme Court of Victoria, Court of Appeal:

In general, it is of the utmost importance that assurances of anonymity of the type given to EF [Gobbo] are honoured. If they were not, informants could not be protected and people would not be willing to provide information to the police that could help prosecute offenders. This is why the anonymity of police informers is usually protected by public interest immunity. But where, as here, the role of the police informer has been abused to the point of corrupting the criminal justice system, there arises a greater public interest in disclosure than the public interest in anonymity of the indicator must yield.

EF’s actions in purporting to act as counsel for the convicted persons while secretly instructing them against them were fundamental and appalling breaches of EF’s obligations as counsel for its clients and of EF’s duties to the court. Similarly, Victoria Police were guilty of misconduct in knowingly encouraging EF to do what it did and were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of every police officer’s sworn duty to perform faithfully and according to the law of all the offices imposed on him, without favor or affection, malevolence or malice. As a result, the prosecution of every convicted person has been corrupted in a way that has degraded the fundamental principles of the criminal justice system.

Nicola Gobbo Marriage/Spouse

Richard Barkho is Nicola Gobbo’s partner and the couple have two children. Barkho was serving a five-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in March 2019.

Nicola Gobbo Fortune

The estimated net worth of her is around US$3 million in 2023.