SLY | 10 things we learnt (or didn’t learn) from Nicola Gobbo’s bombshell interview

Image: ABC’s 7.30 Report

Lawyer turned police informant, Nicola Gobbo, gave an explosive interview on the ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday night.

The interview has prompted many questions, as it came shortly after Ms Gobbo claimed she was too unwell to give evidence to the Lawyer X royal commission.

The head of the royal commission has questioned why the commission wasn’t informed the interview would be happening.

Sly says he took away 10 things away from the “fascinating” chat:

1. She’s fit enough to give an interview for television

   Sly says Ms Gobbo’s interview proves her suggestion she is too sick to give evidence the the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants is untrue.

   “She’s fit enough to give evidence to a royal commission, so the suggestion of ill health goes out the window!” he told 3AW’s Kate and Quarters.

2. She claims she needs at least a thousand hours to prepare to give evidence to the royal commissioner

   “Nicki, you’re not a lawyer, you’re a witness,” Sly said.

   “You know what you do as a witness? You rock in, you take the oath and you tell the truth. You don’t need a thousand hours to prepare just to tell the truth!”

3. A lot of what she says is palpable nonsense

   Ms Gobbo’s claim she was sneaked into the Purana Taskforce office in the early hours of the morning doesn’t add up.

   “She claimed to her handlers that an unnamed member of Purana secreted her into the office in the early hours of the morning so that she could alter a witnesses statement. That was at 412 St Kilda Road,” Sly said.

   “That’s a 24 hour police station. The idea of bringing in, at that point, a star and controversial defence lawyer into probably the most secret and secure office in Victoria Police history, would be fraught with danger … You could just print the statement off and get it changed off site, or take a screenshot! Plus the actual witness signed the statement afterwards, so it hardly makes sense.”

4. She says the police have threatened to take her kids

   Sly says Ms Gobbo has confused the police with the High Court.

   “The High Court said ‘your behaviour is such that you are risking your children and if you do not go into protection something will have to be done to protect those children’. It is actually Nicola Gobbo’s behaviour that has put her children at risk,” he said.

5. She says she was manipulated by police to become an informer

   This doesn’t add up, because Ms Gobbo turned informer more than once.

   “She was an informer three times from 1994 onwards,” Sly said.

6. She says she was acting in noble cause, but she wasn’t

   “She was totally compromised,” Sly said.

   “This is a lawyer who carried burner phones so she could speak to her clients on non-legal matters, on criminal matters, and hopefully not be detected!”

7. She’s incorrectly referred to as a ‘gangland lawyer’.

   “No, she was a lawyer who was a MEMBER of the gangland,” Sly said.

   “She was a criminal.”

8. Where were the lawyers in all of this?

   “So many lawyers and judges have said that they spoke to her and said ‘you’re running too close to your clients’ and they were concerned about her ethics,” Sly said.

   “Why wasn’t she called in and given a mentor and told ‘your behaviour is unacceptable, you will report to this person from the ethics committee once a week, and if your behaviour doesn’t improve we’re going to take your ticket’?

   “Everyone’s talking about what the police did, but what did the lawyers do?”

9. She says she was forced to continue as an informer, but it doesn’t add up

   “The handlers were trying to get her out, Sly said.

   “They wanted her to stop talking to Mokbel, but she wanted to be the star of the show.”

10. She wanted to be in the spotlight

    Ms Gobbo loved being the star of the show, and Sly says when she fell out of favour she would do anything to regain the spotlight.

    “When she became an informer, at the end of one year she wanted a celebration and she asked her handlers ‘am I the best informer you’ve ever had? I won’t stop until I am’ … That’s why she ended up wearing a wire on the Hodson matter, which was incredibly stupid … because she had moved from centre stage to the chorus and she hated it,” he said.

    “She had to be front of stage.

    “Well, she’ll be centre stage in the royal commission when she gives evidence!”

Press PLAY below to listen to Sly’s full segment on 3AW Breakfast.