Lawyer X documents at the centre of drug-runner’s stalled appeal
Lawyer X, aka Nicola Gobbo,is a a key figure in a series of underworld figures' efforts to have their convictions opverturned. Photo: AAP
Two years after being denied bail while he challenges a drug trafficking conviction over the involvement of gangland lawyer turned snitch Nicola Gobbo, John Higgs has launched a fresh attempt.
But two Court of Appeal justices have challenged what he and his lawyers have done to progress his case since their earlier ruling.
Higgs is serving an 18-year prison sentence over the 2007 import of 15 million ecstasy pills in tomato tins, and is not eligible for parole until March 2026.
He’s one of a number of drug traffickers linked to the import of 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy who is arguing he had a lawyer-client relationship with Ms Gobbo, then a go-to barrister for members of Melbourne’s underworld.
She was also registered by Victoria Police as an informer, passing on information to officers about underworld goings on.
Higgs’ barrister, David Grace KC, argued that in the two years and seven months since his client was last denied bail there had been a range of preliminary hearings about the disclosure of documents that may assist Higgs’ appeal, and one matter which remains outstanding.
He expected it would be a year before the Court of Appeal could hear an application by Higgs for leave to challenge his conviction.
But Justice David Beach challenged whether anything in particular had been done to progress Higgs’ case.
‘Spiralling down the drain’
He said he couldn’t think of a single person with a Lawyer X appeal who had been given access to documents in the last two years that helped their case in any material way.
“These cases seem to be just spiralling down the drain with endless requests for documents that go nowhere,” he said.
“If he wants to satisfy himself 100 per cent that he has made every attempt to get every document in the universe in connection with his case – well these proceedings will drift on for some time.”
Whether that would motivate the court to grant bail was an entirely different issue, he said.
It was anticipated when the Court of Appeal last denied bail that a number of steps would be taken in Higgs’ case to progress his appeal application, but nothing seemed to have been done, he added.
The judges will hand down their decision at a later date.
-AAP
