CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Channel 9 executives are licking their lips today, after signing off on their newest true crime drama reboot.
Season 1 on the famed TV series Underbelly is expected to be rebooted, both on screen and in the streets of Melbourne – following the Lawyer X scandal.
The ‘Lawyer X’ fuck up has rocked Victoria’s police and legal establishments and prompted a royal commission into the state police force’s conduct during the Melbourne gangland war and its knee-jerk reactions to jailing as many people as possible, as quick as they could – in an effort to stop people being murdered at Auskick.
Between 1995 and 2009, Gobbo was a registered police informant, whilst also working as a defence lawyer for many of Melbourne’s organised crime figures. She passed Victoria Police information about her clients whilst representing them, leading to the prospect of many convictions being overturned. During media coverage of the scandal in 2018 and 2019, Gobbo’s identity was subject to a suppression order, and she was referred to in the media only as Lawyer X
Today, Faruk Orman, who was jailed for the 2002 murder of underworld figure Victor Peirce, walks free from a Melbourne court after his conviction was quashed in the wake of the revelations surrounding inadmissible evidence that locked up over 50 gangsters.
The case against him was thrown into doubt after it was revealed his lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, was also a police informer and was heavily involved in the evidence used against him.
In response to this, Channel 9 is preparing for the reboot of Underbelly Season one, as all of the criminals who were involved in the first season, except the ones that got murdered, are now expected to walk free.
“This is our Lion King” says a spokesperson for Channel 9.
“Obviously Grantley, Colosimo and the Heartbreak High guys that played the Moran brothers won’t be making a return…”
“But everyone else will be back to their old tricks!”
