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Twist in Lewis Moran murder appeal may put prosecutors in the gun
A case stalled before Victoria’s Court of Appeal for the past three years has taken a dramatic turn, with lawyers for convicted killer Evangelos Goussis seeking to argue that prosecutors and police breached legal disclosure obligations when Goussis stood trial for Moran’s 2004 murder.
Drug conviction overturned after police lied to get search warrant
A convicted drug trafficker who spent two weeks in jail on remand has had her case overturned after Victoria Police conceded an officer lied to obtain a search warrant to raid her home.
Lawyer X: Purana’s legacy is the loss of trust in the justice system
The royal commission into the handling of police informants has been nothing short of damning in its criticism of VicPol’s handling of disgraced barrister Nicola Gobbo. It has also slammed the behaviour of the ex-lawyer turned supergrass as inexcusable and seriously damaging to public trust in the justice system.
Former Nicola Gobbo client Faruk Orman speaks out about time in jail
When Faruk Orman walked from the Supreme Court last year and gulped in his first breaths as a free man in 12 years, he found a lot had changed.
Bugged lawyers’ conversations available to police thanks to ‘IT error’
The massive breach of the rights to confidentiality and legal professional privilege has potentially contaminated an unknown number of criminal cases and convictions.
Wrongly convicted, jailed for a decade and now finally free to tell his story
“There must have been 20 Purana taskforce detectives there. They were all doing high-fives, slapping each on the back. It was like they’d won Tattslotto,” Mr Cvetanovski says. “And all of them knew the way they achieved that result was by fraud.”
Underworld convictions in doubt after police caught secretly paying off witness (22 Oct 2020)
A convicted drug trafficker and up to two dozen other gangland figures, including Tony Mokbel, could walk free after prosecutors conceded that Victoria Police corrupted a key jailhouse witness by paying him $10,000.
Why I don’t buy the story of Gobbo as black sheep or lone wolf (10 Oct 2020)
The legal fraternity, like outlaw bikies and mafia goombahs, run a closed shop controlled by secret rules and ancient rituals not to be broken. Barrister turned police informer Nicola Gobbo broke those rules and has been condemned by her former colleagues (some desperate to reinvent themselves as squeaky clean).
Drug trafficker bailed over concerns about Gobbo’s role in conviction (19 May 2020)
A man jailed as one of Tony Mokbel’s drug traffickers has been granted bail after 11 years in prison, because of concerns over the role lawyer-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo played in his conviction.
Faruk Orman walks free after murder conviction quashed over Lawyer X scandal (26 Jul 2019)
Faruk Orman, who was jailed for the 2002 murder of underworld figure Victor Peirce, has walked free from a Melbourne court after his conviction was quashed in the wake of the Lawyer X scandal.
ABC News article
The Age article
news.com.au article
The Guardian article
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Supreme Court of Victoria video of the ruling ©Supreme Court of Victoria
Aussie gangsters eye freedom amid police informant scandal (7 May 2019)
Some of Australia’s most dangerous criminals could have their convictions overturned after revelations their defence lawyer was secretly feeding information to police.
Gobbo betrayed gangland client in secret plot to get Gatto (23 Mar 2019)
The harder they fall: Nicola Gobbo, from gangland lawyer to family outcast (1 Mar 2019)
The name Gobbo opens doors in Melbourne. It doesn’t stand against a Baillieu or a Myer in this city where old money rules, but it carries a rare clout, never more so than in the legal world, where generations of the family have made their mark.
‘There are people in prison who shouldn’t be’: Lawyer slams top cop (14 Feb 2009)
The lawyer for a gangland getaway driver has slammed Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton on live radio for delays in disclosure of documents she said would help her client’s appeal.
Informer 3838 may have been recruited as police informer after being charged with drug offences (7 Feb 2019)
The lawyer at the centre of an informer scandal enveloping Victoria Police became a snitch two years before she was admitted to practice, raising questions about whether she was recruited after being charged with drug offences as a university student.
Tony Mokbel and the other criminals who could walk free thanks to the Informer 3838 scandal (5 Feb 2019)
Some of the country’s most feared gangland criminals are eyeing freedom over revelations their court cases were jeopardised by the involvement of Informer 3838, also known as Lawyer X.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton responds to Lawyer X scandal (6 Dec 2018)
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton could excuse himself from leading the police response to a royal commission into the use of a lawyer as a police informant during the height of Melbourne’s gangland wars.
Informer 3838 scandal could give Victor Peirce murder driver Faruk Orman a shot at freedom (5 Dec 2018)
A man serving a 20-year jail term for his part in the killing of underworld figure Victor Peirce could be the first convicted murderer to make a bid for freedom in the wake of the Informer 3838 scandal.
Gangland killer driver Frank Orman set to challenge his conviction (5 Dec 2018)
A gangland getaway driver is set to be the first killer to lodge an appeal over the Lawyer X scandal.
Gangland murder conviction to be challenged over Informer 3838 scandal (4 Dec 2018)
A gangland getaway driver serving a 20-year jail term for killing career criminal Victor Peirce will be the first murderer to challenge his conviction over the Informer 3838 scandal.
Lawyer X: Faruk Orman first murderer to appeal in wake of gangland (4 Dec 2018)
Informer 3838: Faruk Orman
In December 2018, the High Court of Australia released a judgment which revealed that a Defence Barrister had been recruited as a Police Informer between 2005 and 2009. Faruk Orman was one of her clients and was convicted of a murder he has always maintained he did not commit. See these links for our Ruth Parker’s comments on this case, as we continue to fight for Faruk’s freedom.
ASIC v Flugge & Geary (2018)
We represented Peter Geary, who succeeded both at Trial on an Appeal by ASIC, who alleged that he breached his corporate duties whilst a senior employee at the Australian Wheat Board. This was the single biggest ASIC prosecution in recent Australian legal history.
DPP v Phillip Bracken (2017)
County Court Plea on historic sexual allegations, where Mr. Bracken received a community corrections order.
Dennis Ryan, Compensation Claim against the Victoria Police (2015-2016)
We represented Dennis Ryan in relation to his compensation claim, arising from the Royal Commission.
Mohammed Hamzy, Trial, Supreme Court of NSW (2015-2016)
Supreme Court of NSW Murder Trial
Mustapha Dib, Conviction Appeal and Unanimous Acquittal (2016)
Court of Criminal Appeal, Sydney
R v Phillip Bracken (2014)
Acquittal at Trial for the murder of his de facto partner. This was the first successful application of the family violence self defence provision in Victorian legal history.
Ralph Blewitt (2014)
Royal Commission into Union Corruption
The Queen v Aaron Rolls (2009)
Conspiracy to Murder
news.com.au article
The Age article
The Age article
The Age article
DPP v Byron Pantazis (2009)
Criminal Syndicate (Purana Taskforce)
The Brisbane Times article
watoday.com.au article
The Sydney Morning Herald article
The ABC article
DPP v Harold Taylor (2008)
Murder
The Herald Sun article
The Herald Sun article
The Australian article
The Herald Sun article
The Age article
Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions v Nick Petroulias (2008)
Taxation Fraud
Police v Abraham Stephanopoulos & Medical Practitioners Baord v Abraham Stephanopoulos (2006)
Medical Practitioners Board Disciplinary Proceedings
The Queen v Zdravko Micevic – ‘The David Hookes Case’ (2005)
Manslaughter
The Sydney Morning Herald article
The Sydney Morning Herald article