Underworld figure Mick Gatto threatened to kill informer Lawyer X

Underworld figure Mick Gatto threatened to kill informer Lawyer X if it was ever proven she was talking to police

  • Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto allegedly threatened Lawyer X
  • Lawyer X, criminal barrister turned police informant, was told she’d be killed
  • She said her former clients and other crime figures were just waiting for proof
  • Submission to Supreme Court of Victoria said they would wait for ‘paperwork’ 
  • Royal commission into lawyers turned police informants will begin this week 

Underworld figure Mick Gatto (pictured) allegedly threatened to kill a female criminal barrister turned police informant if her double life was ever officially confirmed

Underworld figure Mick Gatto allegedly threatened to kill a female lawyer who worked as a police informant if her relationship with authorities was ever confirmed, a court has been told. 

In a police submission to the Supreme Court of Victoria, police revealed the woman, known as ‘Lawyer X’ or ‘Informer 3838’, had previously been threatened by Mick Gatto and associates.  

‘That group have specifically stated that if [Lawyer X] were found to be a human source then she would be killed,’ a police risk assessment submitted to the court read. 

Gatto was a client of the woman, and is one of only a small group who are not dead or currently incarcerated.  

Lawyer X, who cannot be named for legal reasons, represented many clients linked to Victoria’s violent gangland era. 

The details she provided not only helped to rein in crime kingpins like Tony Mokbel but also tilted the gangland wars in Melbourne to the police’s favour. 

The court heard Lawyer X believed if her former clients were to receive confirmation that she had been working as an informant, she would be killed: ‘by a bullet in her head or something else lesser’.

She told her police handlers if the information ever got out, to ‘say nice things at my eulogy, because I will be gone – and enjoy the royal commission’. 

A royal commission will be held later this year into the former barrister, and her contribution to scores of gangland convictions. 

Informer 3838 worked as a defence lawyer for Melbourne's crime figures such as Tony Mokbel (pictured) and passed on sensitive information about them to Victoria Police

Informer 3838 worked as a defence lawyer for Melbourne’s crime figures such as Tony Mokbel (pictured) and passed on sensitive information about them to Victoria Police

Lawyer X said there wasn’t ‘anyone in Victoria who does not know who Lawyer X is when references are made publicly’, and that she was told by police her life was in ‘the highest category of danger’.

The former criminal defence barrister, who has two young children, told the court she believed her former clients or their associates were simply waiting for official confirmation before they went looking for revenge.  

‘So they might see a Herald Sun article. They’ve got an idea in their head,’ she said. ‘They three-quarters believe it, but they still want, as they did when I was acting for [them], a piece of paper that confirms it. 

‘Often what they wanted was a police diary entry, a daybook entry, an informer’s registration page from Victoria Police’s records. 

INFORMER 3838’S TOP CRIMINAL BUSTS

Karam, Higgs, Pasquale Barbaro and 33 co-accused for the largest ever seizure of ecstasy in the world 

Horty Mokbel, Milad Mokbel and their co-accused

Witness B – who presented with a mountain of evidence against him lead to him becoming a witness for Police

Faruk Orman for the murder of Victor Pierce

Members of the Carlton Crew  

‘Their expression was, “Show us the — show me the paper work.”‘ 

The dealings of ‘Lawyer X’ and five other police informants will come under the microscope this week when a royal commission begins.

The revelations gangland lawyers were passing privileged information to police is expected to result in many major jailed crime figures appealing their convictions.

Expected to be among them are Barbaro, who is serving a life sentence for his failed ecstasy importation, as well as infamous drug boss Tony Mokbel, who received a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking. 

The woman (stock image) has said she fears for her life, and will be the subject of a royal commission beginning this week

The woman (stock image) has said she fears for her life, and will be the subject of a royal commission beginning this week



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk