Nicola Gobbo: Barrister exposed as Lawyer X informant describes 24/7 Victoria Police surveillance

Former gangland barrister Nicola Gobbo lived under “24/7” police surveillance after she was unmasked as an informer, likening her life to “imprisonment”, a court has been told.

On Thursday, the 51-year-old told Victoria’s Supreme Court that she was whisked from the country before a High Court ruling revealed she was Lawyer X.

She is seeking compensation, alleging Victoria Police failed to keep her identity secret after providing information on underworld figures, some of whom she also represented.

It’s alleged she was “induced” into becoming an informant after reaching out to police for help, with her health and career damaged following her exposure.

The State of Victoria is defending the claim, arguing it cannot be held responsible because she gave information voluntarily and with full knowledge of the risks.

Ms Gobbo is giving evidence via a video link from an undisclosed location due to lingering concerns for her safety, more than five years after her role as an informer during Melbourne’s gangland war was made public.

The former high-profile lawyer can be seen by the judge and bar table, with the public only able to hear her voice projected in the courtroom.

She had changed her name and appearance, the court was told.

Despite a few interruptions due to technical difficulties, Ms Gobbo told the court that she was living in a hotel room overseas when media reports identified her in early 2019.

“We were living in a hotel room and basically doing tourist kinds of things,” she said.

“Victoria police present in that country were telling me what I could or couldn’t do each day.”

In December the previous year, the High Court ruled it would make her role as Informer 3838 public but allowed a three-month period for arrangements to be made.

Ms Gobbo told the court that police kept her in a “holding pattern”, moving location regularly, before she chose to part ways three months later.

“Ultimately we parted ways because of, um, issues about what the future held,” she said.

“Them not being able to provide me with any kind of actual answers to questions.”

Ms Gobbo told the court that she found a home in a gated community and remained overseas until the end of the year when she had exhausted her visa.

She returned to Australia, telling the court she was greeted by officials at one Australian airport with “hello Lawyer X” and later crossed into Victoria.

Ms Gobbo said she lived under 24/7 constant surveillance by police over 2020 and 2021, likening it to imprisonment.

Officers from a “certain unit”, she said, had complete control over her life, including where to live, where she could go and who she could speak to.

“I literally could not leave the house unless it was for the purposes of being taken somewhere or somewhere Victoria Police had prearranged or pre-approved,” she said.

Ms Gobbo said she would often have an unmarked car situated outside the multiple locations she was housed, hidden cameras, and four to six officers accompanying her to appointments or errands.

She told the court that in 2020 she was promised that she would be relocated to a safe country “within three months”, but it took more than a year to learn that she, and her family, would not be accepted.

The public outing of Ms Gobbo triggered one of Victoria’s biggest legal scandals, with a royal commission finding in 2020 more than 1000 criminal convictions could be compromised.

The judge-only trial continues.