Lawyer X fears police will kill her
Nicola Gobbo says she fears that Victoria Police may kill her and does not trust them enough to enter witness protection in Victoria.
The barrister-turned-police informer also says she may ‘‘do things differently’’ in her career if she had her time again. She is living in hiding overseas with her children.
The woman dubbed Lawyer X made the comments in an interview with ABC’s 7.30, filmed in a secret location overseas to protect her whereabouts. The interview was expected to go to air last night.
The police handling of Gobbo as an informant – where she provided information to police on her own clients – is the subject of a royal commission that has this week seen the top brass of Victoria Police take to the witness stand to explain their role in Gobbo’s conduct.
‘‘My greatest fear is the police themselves,’’ Gobbo said.
‘‘Either to kill me or to lead to, lead to a position where I am killed.’’
Gobbo is preparing to sue police for causing personal injury to her and her children, and will potentially seek millions of dollars, the ABC reported.
She said she had left the country prior to the start of the royal commission because she feared for her safety, saying she has been left stranded overseas and ‘‘effectively stateless’’.
Gobbo revealed the extent of her mental anguish, and said she had been threatened by police with the removal of her children if she was to return to Victoria.
‘‘I was manic about it. I couldn’t sleep … but over time, that has changed into suicidal thoughts – obviously no suicide action – severe depression, uncontrolled pain … frustration at the idea or the prospect that my version or even the details of some things are just going to be swept under the rug,’’ she said.
‘‘Victoria Police maintain that the children are potentially at risk and that that potential risk is so great that nothing that I do ... would ameliorate that risk sufficiently, and that therefore, it’s in the best interests of the children to not be with their mother.’’
‘‘It’s not the first time that they [Victoria Police] threatened me in relation to toeing the line and doing things their way or they would take my children,’’ Gobbo claimed.
‘‘I find myself some days thinking this is just an unbelievable nightmare that there is no end to.’’
She declined to answer certain questions about her conduct as a barrister, citing the need to respect matters being investigated by the royal commission.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo last week ordered that Gobbo begin giving evidence by telephone in January next year, but Gobbo claims she is too unwell to give evidence.
Commissioner McMurdo has already recorded three telephone conversations with Gobbo, not under oath.
‘‘In order to produce a witness statement I would conservatively guess that that would take me … 1000 hours without being interrupted, being able to concentrate and not being in pain. And then an opportunity to review the, what I understood some months ago, to be 30,000 pages of material,’’ said Gobbo.
Explaining her conduct, Gobbo said she believed in the concept of legal privilege, but claimed information given by a client to their lawyer was not necessarily privileged if it was about another person or matter.
‘‘I don’t know that guilt is the right word. I’m trying to think of the right way to put it.
‘‘I suppose if I had my time over, I would do things very differently. But then, on the other hand, I think, what choice did I have in respect of what some people said in front of me?’’
‘‘Morally and ethically, I felt like I had no choice,’’ she said.
Victoria Police said yesterday morning it would not be commenting.
A spokeswoman for the royal commission said the ‘‘commission is also willing to significantly limit the length and nature of Gobbo’s cross-examination to accommodate her health concerns.’’ – Nine